Noel Sydney Hush (1924–2019)

Noel Hush left Sydney with his MSc in 1949 to work in Manchester, and then Bristol, before returning to the University of Sydney in 1971 as the inaugural professor of theoretical chemistry, the first such chair in Australia. His students and collaborators occupy senior positions in Australian and international universities. With theoreticians and experimentalists he researched electron transfer in electrochemical changes, between metal ions, in covalent bond frameworks, in surface chemistry of gold, and in complex organic and bio-organic molecules. He was a leader among Australian academics, protesting the restrictions placed on Russian Jewish scientists who wished to leave their homeland. He was elected to fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Society of London, and he continued research long after the formal retirement age.