Biographical entry
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Bright Sparcs
Biographical entry
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Brookes, Helen (1917 - ) |
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| Entomologist and Artist | |
| Born: 3 November 1917 East Malvern, Victoria, Australia | |
| Helen Brookes developed into one of South Australia’s top entomologists. Due to the depression and later her work commitments, she never completed any formal tertiary studies in the field. Instead, Brookes was trained ‘on the job’, initially starting out as a Laboratory Assistant in the fledgling Department of Entomology at the Waite Agricultural Research Institute (1936). She remained with the institute for almost fifty years, receiving numerous promotions along the way: in 1942 Brookes became the Institute’s first female Technical Assistant, in 1964 was given a lecturing role and in 1976 was appointed to the top position of Senior Systemic Entomologist. At first her duties were broad and varied, but as she proved herself she was given specific projects to work on. In 1940 she helped translate from Latin into English the only book written about Australian grasshoppers and during the war years was engaged in identifying and illustrating wheat-associated pests. Her illustrations were published directly in the Journal of Agriculture of South Australia and used on posters delivered to wheat farmers. Later her work dealt with a range of pests including field crickets and Coccoidea - an insect superfamily that includes scale insects and mealy bugs. Coccoidea became her area of expertise and she gained international recognition in the field. She donated her large specimen collection to the Australian National Insect Collection in Canberra upon her retirement (1982). Throughout her career Helen Brookes wrote several important works and made many key contributions to the field. She was a member of the Royal Society of South Australia and a founding member of the Australian Entomological Society. |
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Published by The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre on ASAPWeb, 1994 - 2007 Originally published 1994-1999 by Australian Science Archives Project, 1999-2006 by the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre Disclaimer, Copyright and Privacy Policy Submit any comments, questions, corrections and additions Prepared by: Acknowledgements Updated: 26 February 2007 http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P004586b.htm |