Thorburn Brailsford Robertson
Professor Thorburn Brailsford Robertson is unknown outside
the cloisters of the Adelaide and a few other universities
but his contribution to man's knowledge numbers him amongst
South Australia's great contributors.
Robertson, born 4 March 1884 Edinburgh, the son of
Thorburn and Sheila Robertson nee Brailsford,
came to SA in 1894 when his father took on a position at
the
Callington
Mines
near Murray Bridge. Brailsford gained a BSc from Adelaide
University in 1905 and was shortly afterward appointed
a lecturer at the University of California in Berkeley
where he continued his studies gaining a PhD in 1907 from
Berkeley and a Doctor of Science from Adelaide in 1908.
He continued working at Berkeley and was appointed Professor
in 1917. In 1918 he was appointed to the Chair of Biochemistry
at Toronto. In 1919 Professor Robertson returned to Adelaide
and became the first incumbent of the Chair of Biochemistry.
He is considered to be a pathfinder in this discipline
in Australia.
Professor Robertson was instrumental in
having purpose-built laboratories constructed at Adelaide.
In 1922 the
Darling Building to accommodate the Physiology, Biochemistry
and Histology Departments was opened. Within a year of
the discovery of
insulin at
Toronto in 1922, Robertson had gained a licence and production
of this life-saving material started in the Darling Building
using the most advanced processes that enabled insulin
to be produced cheaply in large quantities for the first
time in the world. A fact largely ignored outside Australia
today!
Professor Robertson's became absorbed in the research
of growth proteins and made a significant contribution
to medical research with the discovery, in 1923, of tethelin which
has been found of great
value
in the treatment of
slow-healing wounds. He also applied the study of growth
proteins to agricultural
science and he was approached by the Commonwealth to
head up a division
of
animal nutrition
which led to
his appointment as Director of the Waite Agricultural
Research Institute. It was in this position that he died
18 January
1930 at Glenelg as the result of influenza complicated
by pneumonia. He was aged 45.
Professor Robertson married his Adelaide professor's (Sir
Edward Charles Stirling and Jane nee Gilbert) daughter,
Jane Winnifred Stirling on 1 July 1910 at the Stirling
home,
Mt Lofty.
They had
two sons and a daughter.
Professor
T Brailsford Robertson's memorial takes the form of a
stained glass window in the Mitchell Building
of the Adelaide University plus the many thousands who
have benefited from cheap plentiful insulin. In his
packed career, he published many papers, textbooks and
childrens'
storybooks.
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