Kenneth Adie Ferguson

circa 1972, Prospect, CSIRO Laboratory, NSW, Australia

Kenneth Adie Ferguson (6 April 1921 – 15 April 2011) was an Australian veterinary scientist.

Family

Ferguson was born in Wahroonga, the fourth child of Eustace William Ferguson and Jessie Perry. He married Helen McVicar, veterinarian (born 1925 in Manly, NSW) in 1946 and they had five children, Deborah, Maggie Ferguson, Kate, John and Angus. They lived at West Pennant Hills in North-western Sydney, moving to Canberra in 1974 and eventually Newcastle in 2008, where he died in 2011.

Education

Primary: Mowbray House School, Chatswood, NSW
Secondary: Sydney Grammar School
Tertiary: University of Sydney
Post graduate: Christ's College 1948-1951, Cambridge. Doctor of Philosophy. Title of thesis: The influence of the anterior pituitary on wool growth.

Career

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

Purification and study of pituitary hormones with Alan Wallace.

Extended collaboration with Professor Leslie Lazarus and Dr Margaret Stuart of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research.

Novel method to protect food protein from breakdown in the rumen with Dr Trevor Scott

Polyunsaturated milk, cheese and meat products

Patents

Scientific administration

1968: officer-in-charge of the CSIRO Division of Animal physiology at Prospect, NSW
1973: chairman of the Animal Research Laboratories
1978 until retirement in 1986: director of the CSIRO Institute of Animal and Food Sciences. Ferguson was also one of the founders of the Endocrine Society of Australia, and was its president from 1972 to 1974.

Endocrine society of Australia foundation member (1958) and President 1962-74.

Retirement

Work with Dr Jim Watts, originator of soft rolling skin merino selection process.

Scientific archive

Unusually, his experimental scientific career is well documented. The extensive records and effects have been bequeathed to the National Library of Australia. The NLA index entry is .

Honors

Australian Centenary Medal, 2001
Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
Fellow, Australian College of Veterinary Scientists