A pioneering primary industry researcher and an internationally renowned chemist who made enormous contributions to the State are to be honoured with the naming of significant facilities at The University of Western Australia.

A major walkway linking the UWA Business School to the heart of the campus will be named Underwood Promenade after Emeritus Professor Eric John Underwood (1905 – 1980), a pioneering researcher in sheep nutrition and wool production from the 1930s who revolutionised primary industry.

The UWA Molecular and Chemical Sciences Building will be named the Bayliss Building after Emeritus Professor Sir Noel Stanley Bayliss (1906-1996) an eminent Australian chemist whose name was given to the mineral baylissite and whose work on the free electron model in molecular spectroscopy enabled vital information about chemical compounds.

A UWA graduate, Professor Underwood completed a PhD in pasture growth at Cambridge University before taking up appointments as UWA’s Hackett Professor of Agriculture, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Director of UWA’s Institute of Agriculture. 

As well as his ground-breaking work, Professor Underwood chaired the Tuberculosis Association of Western Australia and was Federal President of the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis.  He received many honorary degrees and was recognised during his lifetime by many organisations for his intellectual contributions to science.

Professor Bayliss served as President of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science; and he was a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, serving as Councillor and Vice-President.

In 1970, after 32 years at UWA, he was appointed Chairman of the Murdoch University Planning Board to oversee the development of WA’s new Murdoch University.

Media references

Danni Wick (Manager, UWA Marketing and Events) (+61 8)  6488 7302
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs) (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716