School of Chemistry, UNSW

Francis Patrick Dwyer was born in Maitland, NSW in 1910. In 1930 he graduated Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Sydney and continued on in inorganic chemistry under the supervision of David Mellor gaining his Master of Science in 1933 from the same institution. The following year he was appointed Head Teacher of Inorganic Chemistry at Sydney Technical College. In 1946 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science for his research on 'Diazoamino Compounds and Their Metallic Salts and Metallic Hydroxide Lakes' and shortly afterwards was appointed Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney. In 1958 he accepted the position of Reader in Biological Inorganic Chemistry, John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University and in 1960 was given a Personal Chair at the ANU. In 1961 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy. He died suddenly in 1962 at the age of 51.

Dwyer worked on many aspects of coordination chemistry, in particular, platinum metal chemistry and optical resolution of metal complexes. He was a pioneer of bio-inorganic chemistry and was making important contributions in this area at the time of his death. Late in 1962 his friends, colleagues, and former research students within the UNSW Chemical Society set up a fund to endow the Dwyer Memorial Lecture and Medal. The lecture is to be in the field of coordination chemistry and to be delivered by a distinguished worker in this field.

The 2007 Dwyer Memorial Lecture was presented by Professor Charles (Chuck) P. Casey on Tuesday 24 July 2007.

A complete list of the previous Dwyer Lecturers is given below.

I	1962	R. S. Nyholm, University College, London.
II	1964	M. Calvin, University of California, Berkeley
III	1965	J. C. Bailar, University of Illinois.
IV	1966	F. A. Cotton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
V	1967	H. B. Jonassen, Tulane University.
VI	1968	F. Lions, University of Sydney.
VII	1969	D. P. Mellor, University of New South Wales.
VIII	1972	J. F. Duncan, Victoria University of Wellington.
IX	1973	H. Taube, Stanford University.
X	1975	J. Ibers, Northwestern University
XI	1975	G. Schwarzenbach, ETH, Zürich.
XII	1976	F. Basolo, Northwestern University.
XIII	1977	G. Wilkinson, Imperial College, London.
XIV	1977	L. Sacconi, University of Florence.
XV	1978	D. H. Busch, Ohio State University.
XVI	1980	R. J. Gillespie, McMaster University, Ontario.
XVII	1980	J. Chatt, University of Sussex.
XVIII	1982	J. Lewis, University of Cambridge.
XIX	1985	A. M. Sargeson, Australian National University.
XX	1986	H. Schmidbaur, Technische Universität München.
XXI	1988	R. H. Holm, Harvard University.
XXII	1989	J. D. Dunitz, ETH-Zentrum, Zürich.
XXIII	1989	T. J. Meyer, University of North Carolina.
XXIV	1991	R. D. Peacock, University of Leicester.
XXV	1993	G. C. Christou, University of Indiana.
XXVI	1994	D. C. Bradley, University of London.
XXVII	1997	M. L. H. Green, University of Oxford.
XXVIII	1999	P. J. Sadler, University of Edinburgh
XXIX	2000	W. R. Roper, University of Auckland
XXX	2002	I. G. Dance, University of New South Wales
XXXI	2003	H. Gray, California Institute of Technology
XXXII	2007	Charles (Chuck) P. Casey, University of Wisconsin-Madison

UNSW Chemical Society - The Dwyer Lectures