UNE joins the international scientific community in acknowledging the passing of one of our most esteemed alumni, Dame Bridget Margaret Ogilvie AC DBE FRS FAA. She died in London in late April at the age of 88.
An early graduate of UNE’s Bachelor of Rural Science, Glen Innes-born Professor Ogilvie became a pioneering parasitologist, visionary science leader and educator, and a tireless advocate for global health. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1996, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2003 and appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2007. In 2003 Professor Ogilvie was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2008.
President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Chennupati Jagadish AC, said she rose from rural Australia to the very forefront of international science. “Dame Ogilvie embodied the curiosity and determination that define the finest scientific minds,” he said. “Beyond her research and leadership, she was deeply committed to communicating science to the public and to nurturing the next generation of researchers. Her influence on Australian and international science will be felt for many years to come.”
Image: Bridget Ogilvie (front centre) with her undergraduate class in their final year. The back two rows are staff with the Professors in the middle row.
Graduating from UNE in 1960 with First Class Honours and the University Medal, Bridget became one of the first Commonwealth Scholars to study for a PhD, at the Cambridge University Veterinary School. From there she joined the UK Medical Research Council’s National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), where her work to improve our understanding of the immune response to parasitic infections would have an enduring impact.
From 1991 until her retirement in 1998, Professor Ogilvie was Director of the Wellcome Trust – the UK’s largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research to improve human and animal health. There, she oversaw the establishment of the Sanger Institute, which played a central role in the sequencing of the human genome, and greatly expanded the Trust’s support for tropical medicine research across Africa and the Asia-Pacific.
Professor Ogilvie became Lord High Steward of the University of Cambridge from 2001-2009 and remains the only woman to have been elected to this prestigious honorary position. In addition, she received an Honorary Doctorate from UNE in 2014 and was one of the first recipients of a UNE Distinguished Alumni Award, in 1994.
“Dame Bridget was one of the most distinguished scientists of her generation and we share the scientific community’s sadness at her passing,” said UNE Vice-Chancellor Professor Chris Moran.
