Vol. 26 No. 2
March-April 2004

Short Bio on David StC. Black

David StC. Black, born in Wollongong, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Sydney. He was awarded an Overseas Scholarship by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, and earned his doctorate at Cambridge. He completed his postdoctoral research at Columbia University, and then began work at Monash University. After nearly 20 years at Monash, he was appointed to the chair of Organic Chemistry at University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1983.

His research, described in almost 250 publications, has led to the synthesis of new types of organic molecules and the discovery of new synthetic methodologies, particularly in heterocyclic chemistry. He has also co-written a monograph (with J. M. Swan) entitled “Organometallics in Organic Synthesis.” His current interest centers on new aspects of indole chemistry.

Prof. Black has engaged in many overseas opportunities. He spent periods of study leave at the ETH Zürich (1968–69), Würzburg University (1974—as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow), and Cambridge University (1980). He has also held visiting professorships at the Science University of Tokyo (1988), the University of Auckland (1992), Güttingen University (1994), Innsbruck University (1999), and Kobe Pharmaceutical University (2000). He has given numerous invited lectures at international conferences and major universities.

Since 1993, he has been the leader of the Joint Selection Team for Australian Development Scholarships for Indonesian postgraduate students. At UNSW he was head of the School of Chemistry from 1987–1990, and acting dean of the Faculty of Science from January to July 1987. He was appointed associate dean (Research) for the Faculty of Science and Technology in 2000, and reappointed to that position in the Faculty of Science in July 2001.

Black’s honors include the Rennie Medal (1970), H. G. Smith Medal (1993), and the A. J. Birch Medal (2003) of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI). In 1990, he was both the Liversidge Lecturer of the Royal Society of New South Wales and the Royal Society of Chemistry Lecturer. He was president of RACI in 1998, and served as chair of the Australian National Committee for Chemistry from 1999–2003.