Quick Facts
Biography
Emeritus Professor Noel Sydney Hush AO, DSc, FRS, FNAS, FAA, FRACI, FRSN (born 15 December 1924) is an Australian biochemist, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Sydney.
Career
Hush was born in Sydney on 15 December 1924 and obtained his degrees (BSc Hons (1945) and MSc (1948)) at the University of Sydney, where he worked as a Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry (1945–49). He then accepted an invitation from M. G. Evans FRS to work in England as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Manchester (1950–54) in the department created by Michael Polanyi. He was subsequently Lecturer and then Reader in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Bristol (1955–71).
He then returned to Australia in 1971 to found The Department of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Sydney, the first such department in Australia. This rapidly became established as a centre for excellence in teaching, from undergraduate to postdoctoral level, and research. In 1989 he became Emeritus Professor engaged in full-time research. He has also held numerous prestigious visiting scientist posts at universities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1988 According to his application citation his researches in the area of homogeneous and heterogeneous electron transfer showed that electron transfer is adiabatic and that it can occur by either optical or thermal mechanisms and that the corresponding rates are closely connected theoretically. He has carried out experimental studies of mixed valence complexes and long range electron transfer in biological systems.
He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales and a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (1977). He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1993 for his services to Australia.
Awards
- 2007 Welch Award in Chemistry.
- 1994 Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture from the Australian Academy of Science
- 1990 Centenary Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry