Professor Andrew A. Benson: inspirational mentor

Abstract

An active sea-going scientist, Professor Andrew A. Benson has an acclaimed reputation for innovative biochemistry, whether he is studying the path of carbon in photosynthesis, the lipid metabolism of biological membranes, the metabolism of arsenic in aquatic plants or calcitonin production in spawning salmon—to name only four of his thousand interests! He infects everyone whom he meets with his enthusiasm for scientific exploration, and the joys of discovery, whether his own or that of others. This engagement with others has allowed him to become a truly memorable mentor, particularly among the Australian science community, and he is treasured for it. Back in the early 1960s, after working with pioneers in radioactive carbon in the UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Radiation Laboratory to isolate the first products of carbon dioxide fixation in photosynthesis (Benson 2002)—truly brilliant achievements—Professor Benson moved to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla, California, where he became the founding chair of the Marine Biology Department, and later Director of the Physiological Research Laboratory and associate Director of the Institution. In keeping with his wide interests, the objective of his Marine Biology group was to understand the fundamental problems of biology and medicine, through a better understanding of marine organisms and the manner in which they adapt to life in the sea. Molecular, biochemical, physiological and ecological characteristics of marine plants, animals, and bacteria were all utilized in this search. This approach was stimulated by the aquisition of the research vessel RV Alpha Helix in 1966, a national facility, funded by the US National Science foundation, but managed by Scripps. Professors Benson and Scholander were intimately involved in the planning and devising of its scientific programmes. The facilities of this floating laboratory attracted many collaborating investigators from American and foreign institutions, and it was planned that the vessel would take groups of medical scientists and biologists to far corners of the marine world where they could learn from nature and each other. No longer scientists would be limited to the study of rats, mice and rabbits in their laboratories. They could find more specialized biological systems in the sea for understanding human disorders and problems (Benson 1992). The maiden voyage from Scripps to the Australian Great Barrier Reef in 1966 was no exception. This ‘‘Billabong’’ expedition had many objectives, including the study of reef symbioses between microscopic algae and reef building corals and Tridacna clams, salt and water regulation of mangroves, neurophysiologial studies of marine invertebrates, temperature regulation of reptiles, and physiological investigations of the ‘‘mermaid’’ sirenians—the gentle dugongs. I was to join Scripps cruise leader Professor Francis Haxo with a brief to identify the photosynthetic pigments of the phylogenetically unknown golden brown algae living symbiotically within reef animals, for which I had just developed a new micro-method. However, my first personal encounter with Professor Andy Benson was not on the Alpha Helix but on the remote air-field in far north Queensland adjacent to Princess Charlotte Bay (Fig. 1) when I was en route from Sydney to the ship to join her 1966 maiden voyage. Disembarking from the tiny twin-engined Cessna aircraft of the Bush Pilots Airways, I was greeted on the ‘‘air-field’’—a rough Queensland S. W. Jeffrey (&) CSIRO Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research, GPO Box 1538, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia e-mail: shirley.jeffrey@csiro.au