Richard Ignacy Bartolomiej Francki (1930-1990)
Correspondence 1961-1970
MSS 0121
Biographical Note
Richard Francki was a noted virologist, working as Reader at the Waite Agricultural Research Institute of the University of Adelaide at the time of his death in 1990.
He was born in Warsaw in 1930 and escaped with his family to England in 1939 where he completed secondary schooling. His family migrated to New Zealand where he attended Auckland University College from 1952-1960, undertaking a PhD under Professor REF Matthews. In 1961 Francki was appointed as lecturer in the Dept of Plant Pathology at the Waite Agricultural Research Institute, becoming Senior Lecturer in 1967 and Reader in 1972.
Francki travelled widely, took sabbaticals in the United States (including 12 months study leave 1964-65 working with SG Wildman at UCLA and as an instructor at the Dept of Botany and Plant Biochemistry) and The Netherlands, and attended numerous worldwide conferences as contributor and organiser. He was the author of over 135 papers, 35 invited scientific papers and two books. He built up a major research centre of plant virology in Adelaide and supervised over 27 graduate students.
He acted on numerous national, society and University committees, served as Associate Editor of Virology and the Journal of General Virology, served on the editorial boards of several other journals, sat on the programming committees of Virology conferences and was Secretary of the Virology Division of the International Union of Microbiological Societies 1981-1987.
(adapted from the Obituary by JW Randles published in Australasian Plant Pathology v. 19:4, 1990, p. 148)
Francki's correspondence was transferred to Rare Books & Special Collections from the University of Adelaide Archives in October 2008.
Contents Listing
Series 1: Australian letters 1961-1970 30cm
Includes correspondence with JR Morschel (Dept of Health re Repository Technical Committee); KP Lamb (U of Papua & New Guinea); PB Hutchinson, Peter Hutch and PG Stanley of CSR Research Laboratories (NSW); JE Hine (U of Queensland); GR Johnstone (U of Tasmania); D Teakle (U of Queensland); AJ Gibbs (ANU); B Muir (Royal Botanic Gardens Vic.); G Behncken and RS Greber (Qld Dept Primary Industries); RH Taylor, PR Smith and LL Stubbs (Vic Plant research Institute); ID Geard (Tas. Dept of Agriculture); AB Lloyd (U New England); EL Griffiths (Perth); members of CSIRO, the Waite Institute and the Dept of Agriculture; P Cooper (ANU); GM Behncken (Qld Primary Industries); TH Harrison (Dept of Health); LR Fraser (NSW Dept Agriculture); and correspondence re research students, courses, equipment, testing of leaf samples, talks to organisations and conferences. Some correspondence in Polish. Includes typescript of paper ‘In vitro replication of plant viruses'
Series 2: Overseas letters 1961-1970
Correspondents include D. Peters (Netherlands), GK Owusu (Cocoa Research Institute, Ghana), M. Hollings (Glasshouse Crops Research Institute, Sussex), R Cropley and AF Posnette (East Malling Research Station), Sam Wildman (UCLA), RG Grogan and G Nyland (UC, Davis), E Luisoni (Turin), K Roger Wood (Birmingham), RW Fulton (Wisconsin), R Bercks (Germany), B. Obuchowska-Dus (Poland), S Parisi (Pavia), HH Thornberry (Illinois), C Wetter (Germany), JM Kaper (Plant Virology Laboratory, Maryland), MHV van Regenmortel (Stellenbosch, RSA), K Helms (Goethe Insitute), H Wiesenmeyer (Vanderbilt U), TO Diener (Crops Research, Maryland), HL Sänger (Liebig), G Faccioli (Bologna), R Markham (Cambridge), G Mink and KN Saksena (Washington State U), BD Harrison and FC Bawden (Rothamsted Experimental Station), CI Kado (UCLA), R Haselkorn (Chicago), HH Murakishi (Michigan State U), RI Hamilton (Montana State U), HA Scott (Maryland), R Hull (Cambridge), R Whitcomb (UCLA), LM Black (Illinois), H Amos (Auckland), RSF Hennessey (Wellcome Foundation), TC Wrigley (Cambridge), and NC Crowley while at UCLA, correspondence re International Congress for Virology, enquiries re visiting research positions and correspondence re membership of societies, and with equipment and specimen suppliers.
Series 3: New Zealand letters 1961-1970
Correspondents include AD Thomson (U of Otago), REF Matthews (U of Auckland), PR Fry (DSIR), JW Randles (U of Auckland), Rod Bieleski (DSIR), JW Lyttleton (DSIR), RC Close (DSIR), JAR Miles (Medical School, Dunedin), EE Chamberlain (DSIR re reference for R. Hall etc), VJ Chapman (U of Auckland), GS Grandison (Dept of Agriculture), Bill Bertrand (Dominion Physical laboratory), PL Bergquist (DSIR and Huntington Labs, Boston), DM Hall (Dominion Physical Laboratory), R Bellamy (DSIR), A McKissock (Dept of Agriculture), AD Thomson (DSIR), DM Hall (DSIR), MN Harford (U of Auckland).
Series 4: Correspondence with Thomas Carrick Chambers of the University of Melbourne 1961-1969
Series 5: Correspondence with journal editors, referees etc. 1961-1969
Includes some abstracts and typescripts of articles, referees report
Series 6: Correspondence with Berkeley Virus Lab 1962-1963
Correspondence with Dr H Fraenkel-Conrat of the Virus Laboratory (U of California, Berkeley) re projected visit 1964; correspondence re Francki's unsuccessful application for a Miller Fellowship and letters from Noel Flentje while on study leave in California.
Series 7: UCLA letters 1963-1966
Includes matters re Francki's leave in the USA (including applications for re-entry visas to Australia) and correspondence received and sent during his visit, including NT Flentje, Professor of Plant Physiology at the Waite re Francki's study leave and departmental and research matters (including the development of electronmicroscopy and purification procedures). Also correspondence with other colleagues, including John Randles of the SA Dept of Agriculture re his thesis and research, NC Crowley, Maurice Atkinson of Flinders (then Bedford Park), and Thomas Carrick Chambers of the University of Melbourne. Also 1965-1966 correspondence with Keith Boardman of CSIRO and Sam Wildman (UCLA) re research article.
Cheryl Hoskin
January 2009
