Download Trudinger, Philip Alan

Philip Alan Trudinger
(1927-2010)
By Graham Skyring (BBGL 1970 to 1987)
Philip Alan Trudinger, BSc PhD was born in Adelaide, South Australia
on June 12th, 1927. Phil was educated in Adelaide and he submitted
his Doctor of Philosophy thesis “Some Aspects of the Deamination of
Aspartic Acid by Bacteria” to the University of Adelaide in 1953. Soon
after this he went to France and worked at the famous Pasteur
Institute with microbiologist and biochemist, Georges N. Cohen on
growth and protein synthesis in bacteria. P A Trudinger and Georges
N Cohen published their research in the Journal of Bacteriology in
1955. This work was done in the same lab and around the same time
at which Francois Jacob, Andre Lwoff and Jacques Monod did their
work on the genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis and for
which they subsequently won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine in 1965.
Phil then went to the University of Sheffield (UK) on a CSIRO
overseas student fellowship and studied CO2 fixation by the
chemoautotroph, Thiobacillus denitrificans and showed that there
was an operative Calvin Cycle in chemoautotrophic microorganisms.
This was a biochemical milestone. After a short period back in
Australia he went to the United States and worked with Wolf
Vishniac at Yale University. Their work on CO2 fixation by
chemoautotrophic sulfur and hydrogen bacteria was also groundbreaking research and it was published in Bacteriological Reviews in
1962. Phil returned to Australia and resumed his research position
in the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry, Canberra.
Then in 1965 there was a major turning point in Phil’s scientific
career. He went to work in the Baas Becking Geobiological
Laboratory (BBGL) housed in the Bureau of Mineral Resources (now
Geoscience Australia). Laurens Baas Becking after whom the BBGL
was named, had in 1959 obtained lead, copper and silver sulfides in
bacterial cultures at room temperature suggesting the possibility of
contemporaneous deposition of sulfidic ore constituents in
sedimentary marine environments. Baas Becking did this work at
the Bureau of Mineral Resources but he fell ill and was unable to
continue his research (deleted ref). Subsequently, in response to
the notion that “if stratiform ore sulfide bodies had some
relationship to their environment (depositional) there would be a
hope of developing some criteria of ore occurrence which could be
used in the search for new ore” the Bureau of Mineral Resources,
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the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
and the Australian Mineral Industries Research Association “agreed
on the setting up of a more ambitious and longer-term research
effort with P. A. Trudinger leading the biological work and W.M.B.
Roberts the mineral work (excerpts from The Origins of the Baas
Becking Laboratory, by Haddon F. King, CEO, Conzinc Riotinto of
Australia Ltd. Mineralium Deposita,2, 1967). By this time Phil had
gained a laudable national and international reputation for his work
on bacterial sulfur metabolism and his expertise in this field of
research qualified him eminently for the position.
During its 21 year tenure, the BBGL was staffed by a uniquely
multidisciplinary group of research scientists: water and mineral
chemists, soft and hard rock geologists and economic geologists,
paleontologists, a vulcanologist, organic chemists, microbiologists
and biochemists, electronic engineers and technical officers skilled
in a wide range of laboratory and field work. At any one time there
were around 20 scientists and technical officers working at the
BBGL. Under Phil’s leadership, there was also a continuing stream of
eminent scientists from all over the world visiting and working in
the BBGL, contributing much to the scientific stature of the
Laboratory. All who worked in the BBGL contributed expertise and
research in pursuing the 1965 brief “how sunlight, algae,
microorganisms, seawater, sediment, reefs, rocks and time
interacted to generate an ore body”. Under Philip Trudinger’s
guidance and direction, the Baas Becking researchers worked well
together in trying to piece together this complicated geobiological
story. They were very productive in laboratory and field work and
prolific in publication. On the closure of the BBGL in 1987 it was
reported In one newspaper article that “The BBGL gained an
enviable reputation for its work”, a sentiment applauded both here
and overseas at the time.
Phil’s collaboration with A. B. Roy on the book “Biochemistry of
Inorganic Compounds of Sulphur” (Cambridge University Press,
1970) was a major contribution to geobiological research and until
recently it was still in print and continues to be a source of
reference. Phil was also a co-editor with Dr D. J. Swaine in
publishing a series of bench-mark papers in “Biogeochemical
Cycling of Mineral-forming Elements (Elsevier, 1979). He was a key
participant in the International Symposium on Environmental
Biogeochemistry 1979: Canberra, A.C.T, and he was a co-editor
with Professors Malcolm Walter and Bernard Ralph of the
Proceedings of the Biogeochemistry of Ancient and Modern
Environments (Australian Academy of Science, Canberra, 1980).
Perhaps one of the most significant acknowledgements of his
scientific contributions was his invitation by the Royal Society to be
a keynote speaker at a meeting on “The Sulphur Bacteria” in
London in 1982.
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Phil had a keen ability to synthesise in most lucid prose the story of
how tiny, miniscule bacteria about whose biochemical insides he
knew so much, effected such profound bio- and geochemical
processes in the oceans, estuaries and sediments of our planet,
both in ages long since passed and in the contemporary world
around us; even to the extent of starting an ore body. He did this
on many occasions and it was a skill that made the BBGL
recognised as a place of good and important science. Such was the
depth of research that Phil fostered, very significant contributions
were made to areas of research not directly related to sulfide ore
formation. For example the BBGL work on the rates of physical,
chemical and biogeochemical processes in Australian estuaries and
coastal environments were essential to understanding the
biogeochemistry of ore genesis. They were also important in
understanding the broad spectrum of biogeochemical processes in
contemporary coastal waterways; a corner stone in coastal
management. Similarly, paleontological and biogeochemical studies
of very ancient rocks set the geological boundaries for metal sulfide
formation in ancient aquatic environments and they also contributed
some basic knowledge on the primitive forms and evolution of life
on Earth and maybe, other planets in the cosmos.
Much of the science generated by Phil and his colleagues at the
BBGL from 1965 to 1987 is confined now to the lonely spaces in
journals and books of these past decades residing in the nether
parts of our libraries and book shelves but despite the passing
years, good science endures. A few days after Phil died Dr Roger
Summons FAA of Geoscience Australia and a member of the BBGL
sent this note. It was read at Phil’s funeral:
“Thanks for passing on this news, sad as it is. Perhaps Phil would
be have been pleased to know that there is a group of graduate
students here engaged in a 'competition' to beat each other in
achieving the highest delta (ie 32S/34S fractionation) for
dissimilatory sulfate reduction in cultures of SRB (sulfate-reducing
bacteria) following ideas articulated in publications by Chambers
and Trudinger ,1979”.
Phil passed away peacefully at St Margaret’s, Calvary Retirement
Community, Canberra, on October 24th 2010. His devoted wife
Moira predeceased him on 29th November, 2003. He is survived by
his daughter Susan, his sons Julian and Kim and his grandchildren
Tim, Gabriel, Hannah and Rhiannon.
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