Allen Kerr (biologist)

Allen Kerr AO, FRS, FAA (21 May 1926 – 14 December 2023) was a Scottish-born Australian biologist. He served as Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of Adelaide. His most significant work was his study of crown gall — a plant cancer induced by Agrobacterium tumerfaciens.

Biography
Kerr was born in Edinburgh on 21 May 1926. He gained a B.Sc. degree at the University of Edinburgh.

From 1947-1951 he was an assistant Mycologist at the North of Scotland College of Agriculture. From 1951-1980 he was Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer, then Reader in Plant Pathology at the University of Adelaide. From 1978-1983 he was Vice-President of the International Society for Plant Pathology. From 1980-1983 he was President of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society.

In 1978, he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. In 1986 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1990 he received the inaugural Australia Prize for his work with plant genetics and biology.

In 1990, he became Head of the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Adelaide, and in 1991 he became Head of the Department of Crop Protection at the University of Adelaide.

Kerr celebrated his 90th birthday in 2016. He died in Adelaide on 14 December 2023, at the age of 97.

Awards

 * 1978 - Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA)
 * 1978 - Walter Buffitt Prize of the Royal Society of New South Wales
 * 1982 - Ruth Allen Award of the American Phytopathological Society
 * 1986 - Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
 * 1990 - Inaugural Australia Prize
 * 1991 - Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences
 * 1991 - Elvin Charles Stackman Award of the University of Minnesota
 * 1992 - Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)
 * 1995 - Fellow of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society
 * 1996 - Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society
 * 2001 - Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology