Dr. John Macadam (May 1827 – 2 September 1865), was an Australian (Scottish-born) chemist, medical teacher and politician. The genus Macadamia was named after him in 1857 by his colleague Ferdinand von Mueller.
Macadam was born in Northbank, near Glasgow, Scotland. He studied chemistry at the Andersonian University and the University of Edinburgh, later switching to medicine at Glasgow. In 1855, he went to Melbourne, where he had been appointed as a lecturer in chemistry and natural science at Scotch College.
On 7 August 1858 he officiated as one of two umpires at a game of football played between Scotch and Melbourne Grammar. This game was a predecessor to the modern game of Australian Rules Football and is commemorated by a statue depicting the game outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground.[1][2]
In 1858 he was also appointed as the Victorian Government Analytical Chemist. He later became the first lecturer to teach at the University of Melbourne School of Medicine. On 3 March 1862, he commenced lectures in chemistry.
Between 1857 and 1862 he served as Honorary Secretary of The Philosophical Institute of Victoria which later became the Royal Society of Victoria, and was appointed Vice-President in 1863. During this time he was Honorary Secretary of the Exploration Committee that organised the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition. He was also a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Victorian Parliament.
Macadam died in 1865 after a ship-board accident. His grave is in Melbourne General Cemetery and he is commemorated in an exhibition in the School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne.