Summary

Frank Talbot was an ichthyologist who worked as a fisheries scientist and marine biologist before coming to Australia in 1962 to join the staff of the Australian Museum. Initially Curator of Fishes, he was Director of the Museum of ten years. During this time, he expanded its research programs, recruited top scientists and instigated minimum qualifications for curatorial staff. In 1975 he became foundation Professor of Environmental Studies at Macquarie University. Between 1982 and 1994 he was successively Director of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institute. Talbot was adept at attracting external funding for the organisations of which he was Director, enabling those institutions to expand their research and exhibition programs. He was Chairman or a member of the boards of a number of biological and conservation organisations including the Zoological Parks Board of New South Wales and the Great Barrier Reef Committee.

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Chronology

1949

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, South Africa

1951

Education - Master of Science (MSc), University of Cape Town, South Africa

1952 - 1953

Career position - Demonstrator, Kings College, University of Durham, United Kingdom

1954 - 1957

Career position - Fisheries Scientist, British Colonial Service, Zanzibar

1958 - 1962

Career position - Marine Biologist, South African Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

1959

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Cape Town, South Africa

1962 - 1964

Career position - Assistant Director, South African Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

1964

Life event - Migrated to Australia

1964 - 1966

Career position - Curator of Fishes, Australian Museum

1966 - 1975

Career position - Director, Australian Museum

1968 - 1969

Career position - Chairman, New South Wales Scientific Committee on Parks and Wildlife

1968 - 1974

Career position - Member, New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service Advisory Committee

1969 - 1980

Career position - Member, Taronga Zoo Board

1971 - 1972

Career position - President, Australian Marine Sciences Association

1972 - 1979

Career position - Member, Sydney Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board

1972 - 2024

Award - Fellow, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales

1973 - 1974

Career position - President, Museums Association of Australia

1975 - 1982

Career position - Foundation Professor of Environmental Studies, Macquarie University

1975 - 2005

Career position - Member, Australian Marine Sciences Association

1976 - 1978

Career position - Member of Council, Great Barrier Reef Committee

1976 - 1980

Career position - Chairman, Coral Reef Committee, International Association of Biological Oceanographers

1980 - 1982

Career position - Chairman, Taronga Zoo Board

1982 - 1989

Career position - Director, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

1985 - 2024

Award - Fellow, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

1988 - 2024

Award - Fellow, American Institute of Biological Oceanographers

1989 - 1994

Career position - Director, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

1992 - 1993

Career position - Chairman, Association of Museum Directors, U.S.A.

1993 - 1994

Career position - Chairman, US National Committee for Man and the Biosphere

1994 -

Career position - Emeritus Director, National Museum for Natural History, Smithsonian Institutes, Wachington, D.C., U.S.A.

1995 -

Career position - Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of the Environment, Macquarie University

1996 - 2004

Career position - Trustee, World Wildlife Fund (Australia)

2005 - 2024

Award - Honorary Life Member, Australian Marine Sciences Association

2006 - 2009

Career position - Chair, Sydney Institute of Marine Science

2012

Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to environmental protection through the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, to coral reef research, to museum development and management, and to international scientific organisations

2016

Award - Lifetime Achievement Award, Australian Museum Research Institute

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Last, P. R., Scott, E. O. G. and Talbot, F. H.,Fishes of Tasmania (Hobart: Tasmanian Fisheries Development Authority, 1983), 563 pp.Details

Edited Books

• Talbot, F. and Wilkinson, C. eds,Coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses: a sourcebook for managers (Townsville, Qld: Australian Institute of Marine Science, 2001), 193 pp.Details

Journal Articles

• Allen, G. R., Hoese, D. F., Paxton, J. R., Randall, J. E., Russell, B. C., Starck, W. A., Talbot, F. H. and Whitley, G. P., 'An annotated checklist of the fishes of Lord Howe Island',Records of the Australian Museum, 30 (1976), 365-454,https://doi.org/10.3853/j.0067-1975.30.1976.287.Details
• Hutchings, Pat, Ponder,Winston and Recher, Harry, 'Remembering the remarkable Frank Talbot',Australian zoologist, 44 (2) (2025), 383-9,https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.7882/AZ.2025.004.Details
• Talbot, F. H., Russell, B. and Anderson, G. R. V., 'Coral reef fish communities: unstable, high-diversity systems?',Ecological monographs, 48 (1978), 425-40,https://doi.org/10.2307/2937241.Details
• Talbot, Frank, 'AMSA Honorary Life Membership: Frank H. Talbot',Australian marine science bulletin, 169 (2005), 10-11.Details

Resources

• Dr Frank Hamilton Talbot, Director 1966-1975, 2019.https://australian.museum/about/history/people/dr-frank-hamilton-talbot-director-1966-1975/.Details

Resource Sections

• Nuttall, Alexandra, 'Reef researcher Frank Talbot; The 2016 AMRI Lifetime Achievement Award', inAustralian Museum Blog, Council of Australasian Museum Directors, Melbourne, Australia, 6 July 2016.https://camd.org.au/reef-researcher-frank-talbot/.Details

See also

• Robson, Alexandra K.; Production Manager and Editor eds,Who's who in Australia 2019 (Southbank, Vic.: AAP Directories, 2018), 1788 pp.Details

Helen Cohn

Created: 20 June 2022, Last modified: 15 July 2025