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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, 1 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. 2 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. 3