Thomas Oakley Browning
Papers 1949-1986

Held at Waite Institute

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Biography

Thomas Oakley Browning obtained his B.Sc. from the University of Sydney, completing his Honors year in Zoology with a first class in 1949. The same year he was appointed as Assistant Entomologist in the Department of Entomology at the Waite Agricultural Research Institute. in 1950 he was promoted to the position of Entomologist and in 1955 to Senior Lecturer in Animal Ecology in the Department of Zoology. In 1963 Browning was appointed Waite Professor of Entomology, a position he held until his retirement from 1 July 1983. On his retirement the title of Emeritus Professor was conferred on Browning by the University Council.

Browning took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Adelaide in 1952, and was subsequently awarded a Nuffield Foundation Dominion Traveling Fellowship and a Carnegie scholarship, working in Cambridge with Professor Wigglesworth under the former and spending four months visiting laboratories in the United States and Canada on the Carnegie scholarship.

Browning's early research work was concerned with diapause in crickets and the quantitative study of populations of insects and ticks in pastures, in irrigated orchards and in deserts. Subsequently he was involved in fruit fly research and in the general field of population ecology.

The papers held in the Waite Institute Archives deposited by Browning in 1983 include a number of notebooks relating to research undertaken from 1949-83 and some correspondence and other papers relating to Browning's publications, membership of scientific bodies and departmental and University administration, principally in the 1970s. The collection also reflects some of Browning's wider interests and involvement, particularly in the Pugwash Movement, the Australian Labour Party and the Ecological Society of Australia.

Contents

Series 1: Notes for Lectures. 1963-82. 15 cm

1. Agricultural Zoology II - including practicals
2. Agricultural II - including class list 1981, examination papers 1976-83, handbook 1979, 1980 and 1982, memoranda re course 1980-82, reading lists 1963-76.
3. Entomology IV
4. Honours Entomology
5. Environmental Biology - proposed course structure (Master of Environmental Studies) 1978, notes and memoranda.
6. Ecology - lecture on Population Biology, Spring Semester 1964 University of Illinois, School of Life Science.
7. Pest Management. Proposals re Master's degrees in Pest Management Studies (proposed joint course with University of Queensland).
8. Special Lectures
   a) Uncontrollable Pests (ms, n.d)
   b) Biometry - Bioassays. 1976.
   c) Environmental Studies Seminar. 1976.

Series 2: Articles and talks. c.1960-80. 2cm
Re Insect Pests, Resources, Pesticides and Pest Control, and on other scientific and social issues. Also articles on University Planning 1976 and Hugh Stretton's "Problems of University Expansion"

Series 3: Correspondence re: Human Population (abortion) issues
 1970-71. 1cm.

Series 4: Correspondence and Memoranda re Postgraduate Students.
 1975-1980

Series 5: Referees reports. C 1970-80. 5cm.
Reports on papers submitted to journals, applicants for positions, promotions and fellowships. Arranged alphabetically by name of the individual reported upon.

Series 6: External Examiners' Report.
1962-1982.

Series 7: Australian Research Grants Council. Reports of Referee.
1977, 1981, 1983. 5cm

Series 8: C.S.I.R.O. Standing Committee on Agriculture, Entomology Committee Fruit Fly Working Party.
Reports, correspondence and agenda papers. 1974- .2cm

Series 9: Papers relating to Fruit Fly in South Australia. 1972-77. 2cm.
Includes report by Browning to the S.A. Society for Ecology April 1973 and the reports of the Fruit Fly Working Party 1974, 1977.

Series 10: Committee for Teaching the Agriculture Sequence.
Agendas, memoranda and committee. 1973-80.

Series 11: Departmental Committee Minutes, agenda and memoranda.
1980-82.

Series 12: Faculty of Agricultural Science Agendas and Memoranda.
Feb. 1980-May 1983.

Series 13: Works of Art Committee. Correspondence 1969-82.
Including Correspondence with Laurence Daws. 1969-74, 1982.

Series 14: Ecological society of Australia. Symposium, May 1977.
Proposed Programme and related correspondence. 1976. 1cm.

Series 15: ALP State Platform Committee. Correspondence and programmes re:
Meetings and related notes and articles. 1971-72. Browning was a member of the Committee's State Enterprises Sub-Committee.

Series 16: Research Notes. c.1968-80. 60cm
Manuscript and typescript papers, notes, slides, diagrams and notebooks. Specific and general subject headings assigned to each file. Series includes articles on James Davidson for Australian Dictionary of Biography and manuscript, typescript and proof of Animal Populations, with related correspondence.

Series 17: Papers relating to Study Leave, 1980, 1982. 2cm.

Series 18: Correspondence (unfiled) 1981-83. 2cm.
Includes letters relating to retirement Jan. 1981, December 1982 and June 1983.

Series 19: Correspondence (alphabetical sequence). c 1966-83. 40cm.
Alphabetical by name of individual or society*. Most of the correspondence dates from the mid 1970s. *Note: Works of Art Fund correspondence under Stranks, D.R.

Series 20: Correspondence, notes manuscript and author's copy of work on Heliothis punctigera.
1978-81. 5cm.

Series 21: Papers relating to request for A.R.G.C. grant for research on Diapause in a Pharate Adult Moth, and Browning's membership of the Committee.
1977-83. 3cm

Series 22: Laboratory Notebooks. 1949-. 26v.
Including notebooks re Heliothis development, 1976-77. (4v.); Teleogryllos, 1965-69; electron microscope photos of diapausing cricket embryo. Many not identified.

Series 23: I.C.I.P.E. Papers 1976-83. 10cm.
Notice to Members, Newsletters, reports correspondence and Annual reports 1973-82.

Series 24: Papers relating to Pugwash Movement. 1960-1963. 2cm.
[The Pugwash movement was founded in 1955 by scientists concerned with the dangers of nuclear weapons. This concern had prompted the Russell-Einstein manifesto and the first Conference of concerned scientists was held in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, in July 1957. Browning was Secretary of the S.A. Group in the early 1960s]