Agent TypePersonActivities & OccupationsAcademics - ZoologyHistoryGeorgina Sweet was born in Brunswick, Melbourne, in 1875. Her father, George Sweet, ran the Brunswick Brick, Tile and Pottery Co. and was a talented amateur geologist and president of the Royal Society of Victoria (1905). He encouraged Georgina to take up a career in science. She graduated B.Sc., 1896; M.Sc., 1898; D.Sc., 1904. At first she researched the zoology of Australian animals, later she turned her attention to the parasites infesting Australian stock and native fauna. She published widely and became regarded as Australia's foremost parasitologist. Her working life centred around the University of Melbourne and by 1920 became its first woman associate professor. Illness prevented her from applying for the professorship of zoology and at the end of 1924 she retired, but continued to do some part-time lecturing. Sweet was also active in many other organisations, including the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Victoria, the Field Naturalists' Club and the Lyceum Club. She was Australian president of the YWCA (1927-34) and vice-president of the world body from 1934. She was appointed OBE in 1935. A devout Methodist, Georgina Sweet died in 1946.Search records of this agent