The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) is the oldest scientific society in Victoria, Australia.
The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) is the oldest scientific society in Victoria, Australia.
In 1854 two organisations formed with similar aims and membership, these being the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science (founded 15 June, 1854, inaugural president Justice Sir Redmond Barry) and the Philosophical Society of Victoria (founded 12 August, 1854, inaugural president Andrew Clarke). [1] [2] These two merged in July 1855 to form the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, with Clarke as the inaugural president. [3] The Philosophical Institute received Royal Charter in 1859, and the first president of the freshly renamed Royal Society of Victoria was Ferdinand von Mueller (later Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller), then Victoria's Government Botanist. In 1860 the RSV organised the ill-fated Burke & Wills expedition under the Presidency of Victorian Governor Sir Henry Barkly. [4]
The society has played an important role in the life of Melbourne and Victoria, including a foundational relationship with the Melbourne Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, the Melbourne Observatory and Victoria's National Parks. The society convened the first Australian Antarctic Exploration Committee in 1885, commissioned the Burke & Wills expedition and established the Victorian Institute of Marine Sciences in 1978 (now the Marine and Freshwater Discovery Centre in Queenscliff [5] ). Many long-standing community organisations concerned with nature and conservation have grown from an early association with the Royal Society of Victoria, such as the Victorian National Parks Association and the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria.
Located in its heritage-listed headquarters at 8 La Trobe Street, in the centre of Melbourne, the Society's modern role is to communicate and advocate for the important role of science in society, providing public lectures about the latest scientific work and thinking underway in Victoria, and convening forums with government and community to explore an evidence-based approach to issues facing the state. [6] The Society conducts a state-wide program through management of the Inspiring Victoria program, a federally-funded initiative to engage communities with science and promote scientific literacy, including National Science Week. [7]
The Society edits and produces the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, one of Australia's longest-running regional science journals. Back issues from the 19th century through to the early 21st century are digitised and accessible from the State Library of Victoria's online catalogue, along with holdings of the Society's historical papers and archives. [8] Issues published from 2009 are available online, open access through CSIRO Publishing. [9]
The Society confers prizes, awards and medals to recognise high-achievement throughout a scientist's various career stages. RSV bursaries are provided to school students through annual sponsorship of the Science Talent Search run by the Science Teachers' Association of Victoria. Early career researchers are acknowledged annually through the Young Scientist Research Prizes and the Phillip Law Postdoctoral Award. Peak career achievements are recognised through the annual award of the RSV Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research. Distinguished lifetime contributions to science, in particular the public engagement with and understanding of science, are recognised through election as an RSV Fellow.
Fellows of the Royal Society of Victoria are entitled to the use of the professional postnominal FRSV; subscribed members of the RSV are entitled to use of the professional postnominal MRSV. [10]
Georg Balthazar von Neumayer was a German polar explorer and scientist who was a proponent of the idea of international cooperation for meteorology and scientific observation. He served as a hydrographer for the German Empire and was a founder of the Wilhelmshaven Observatory and the German Maritime Observatory which he directed from 1875. He was involved in establishing telegraphic networks for the sharing of meteorological data as well as promoting observatories in the Antarctic and Australia. Along with Carl Weyprecht, he was a founder of the International Polar Commission in 1879. In 1900 he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown with the associated title of Ritter von Neumayer.
The Burke and Wills expedition was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) in Australia in 1860–61. It initially consisted of nineteen men led by Robert O'Hara Burke, with William John Wills being a deputy commander. Its objective was the crossing of Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres. At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-Indigenous people and was largely unknown to European settlers.
The Honorable DrJohn Macadam, was a Scottish-Australian chemist, medical teacher, Australian politician and cabinet minister, and honorary secretary of the Burke and Wills expedition. The genus Macadamia was named after him in 1857. He died at sea, on a voyage from Australia to New Zealand, aged 38.
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia by Governor Charles La Trobe in 1853, and later director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. He also founded the National Herbarium of Victoria. He named many Australian plants.
Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer, commonly referred to as Sir Baldwin Spencer, was a British-Australian evolutionary biologist, anthropologist and ethnologist. He is known for his fieldwork with Aboriginal peoples in Central Australia, contributions to the study of ethnography, and academic collaborations with Frank Gillen. Spencer introduced the study of zoology at the University of Melbourne and held the title of Emeritus Professor until his death in 1929. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1900 and knighted in 1916.
Robert O'Hara Burke was an Irish soldier and police officer who achieved fame as an Australian explorer. He was the leader of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, finding a route across the continent from the settled areas of Victoria to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The expedition party was well equipped, but Burke was not experienced in bushcraft. A Commission of Inquiry held by the Government of Victoria to investigate the failure of the expedition was a censure of Burke's judgement.
William John Wills was a British surveyor who also trained as a surgeon. He was the second-in-command of the Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, finding a route across the continent from the settled areas of Victoria to the Gulf of Carpentaria. He and the expedition leader Robert O'Hara Burke both died of exhaustion on the expedition's return journey.
John King was an Irish-born British soldier who achieved fame as an Australian explorer. He was the sole survivor of the four men from the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition who reached the Gulf of Carpentaria. The expedition was the first to cross Australia from south to north, finding a route across the continent from Melbourne in Victoria to the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland.
Alfred William Howitt, also known by author abbreviation A. W. Howitt, was an Australian anthropologist, explorer and naturalist. He was known for leading the Victorian Relief Expedition, which set out to establish the fate of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition.
Johann Wilhelm Theodor Ludwig von Blandowski, known as William Blandowski, was a German explorer, soldier, zoologist and mining engineer of Polish descent, famous for his exploration of the Murray and Darling Rivers in Australia.
Adrienne Elizabeth Clarke is professor emeritus of Botany at the University of Melbourne, where she ran the Plant Cell Biology Research Centre from 1982 to 1999. She is a former chairman of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, former Lieutenant Governor of Victoria (1997–2000) and former Chancellor of La Trobe University (2011–2017).
The Royal Society of South Australia (RSSA) is a learned society whose interest is in science, particularly, but not only, of South Australia. The major aim of the society is the promotion and diffusion of scientific knowledge, particularly in relation to natural sciences. The society was originally the Adelaide Philosophical Society, founded on 10 January 1853. The title "Royal" was granted by Queen Victoria in October 1880 and the society changed its name to its present name at this time. It was incorporated in 1883. It also operates under the banner Science South Australia.
Ludwig Phillip Heinrich Becker was a German artist, explorer and naturalist. He was born in Rödelheim near Frankfurt am Main. He moved to Australia in 1850, and was a member of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition. He died at the expedition's camp on the western bank of Koorliatto Waterhole, Bulloo River in 1861.
Douglas James Hilton is an Australian molecular biologist. He is the CEO of CSIRO and immediate past Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. His research has focused on cytokines, signal transduction pathways and the regulation of blood cell formation (hematopoiesis). Hilton was the President of the Association of the Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) from 2014-16.
The Philosophical Institute of Victoria was a scientific institute which functioned in Victoria, Australia during 19th century. It was founded in 1854 through the amalgamation of the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science and the Philosophical Society of Victoria. The first meeting of the newly amalgamated group was held on 10 July 1855 at the Museum of Natural History, chaired by a representative of the Victorian Institute, Dr J. Maund. According to the amalgamation statement, 'the objects of the Philosophical Institute shall be the same as that of the Philosophical Society, and that the mode of operation of the new Institute shall be the same as that of the old Society'. The inaugural president was the Victorian Surveyor General Captain Andrew Clark.
Dr Ludwig Becker's Grave is a heritage-listed grave at Molesworth Station, by the Bulloo River, Bulloo Downs, Shire of Bulloo, Queensland, Australia. He was buried in 1861. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 August 1994.
The Burke, Wills, King and Yandruwandha National Heritage Place is a heritage-listed historic precinct on the Birdsville Track, Innamincka, South Australia, Australia. It was added to the Australian National Heritage List on 22 January 2016.
David Corke is an Australian documentary film maker, naturalist and educational author. He filmed first-encounter between Europeans and the aboriginal Pintupi people, and was the first person to film the birth of a red kangaroo.
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