Dame Jean Macnamara DBE (1899–1968), medical doctor and scientist, was involved in crucial research into poliomyelitis during the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Beechworth, Victoria, she studied Medicine at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1922. The following year, she was appointed resident medical officer at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne and began to specialise in the treatment of polio. Awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Travelling Scholarship, between 1931 and 1933 she studied in the USA, Canada and England. Returning to Melbourne, she worked at the Children's Hospital and at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Her work with Frank Macfarlane Burnet led to the identification of multiple strains of the polio virus and proved pivotal in the development of the Salk vaccine. She was honorary medical officer to the physiotherapy department of the Royal Children's Hospital from 1928 to 1951, and for her work with children she was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1935. From the early 1930s, Macnamara campaigned for the introduction to Australia of the myxoma virus. In the face of commercial opposition, she maintained that if the country was to be left with any topsoil, the rabbit must be eradicated. Myxomatosis struck in the late 1950, and a year later rabbit numbers were so reduced that the national wool cheque was said to have increased by £30 million. In 1966, Macnamara became the first woman awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by Melbourne University.
