News Release:
Lab technicians take to road after 70 years' service
| 12/12/03 232/03 Husband and wife team Frank and Wendy Ball have watched students become professors, prepared countless analyses in the labs and clocked up 70 years' service between them at The University of New England. Now the Balls have retired and on Wednesday their colleagues at UNE's School of Rural Science and Agriculture farewelled them at a party at Booloominbah. "I started service at UNE on January 25, 1965 on a temporary contract," Mr Ball said. "Over the years I have worked in the labs in bio-chemistry, on outside-funded projects with academic staff and training and helping postgraduates with animal husbandry and laboratory analyses. "I must have worked with at least 80 postgraduates. helped James Rowe was one of those postgraduate students, who went on to become a professor and now heads the sheep industry CRC." While Mr Ball worked in ruminant studies, Ms Ball worked in poultry science. "I'm Armidale born-and-bred and started working as a laboratory assistant at the university in 1963," Ms Ball, who went to Armidale High School, said. "It has been a most rewarding career and I will be sad to leave, but looking forward to the future."
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Their sons have also pursued careers in science; Alex becoming national program manager of Sheep Genetics in Australia and Michael now Agricultural Master at The Armidale School. Praising the pair, Professor John Nolan said the Balls were each outstanding professional technicians in their own right. "They have been incredibly important to the university in mentoring students and assisting them with their research," Professor Nolan, from the School of Rural Science and Agriculture, said. In a written tribute read out at the farewell party, Professor David Farrell remarked that "Scientists such as Ron Leng [now Emeritus Professor] could not have reached the dizzy heights of his career without the efforts of workers such as Frank." Wendy Ball is known throughout the Poultry Industry in Australia having worked for many years with the late Rob Cumming and more recently with Associate Professor Julie Roberts. The Balls, avid bird watchers, have bought a camper van and intend spending time travelling Australia and abroad. Media contact: Lydia Clifford, Public Relations, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 2779. A photograph of Frank and Wendy Ball is available for download. |
