A number of other important matters occurred while I was at the Rockefeller Institute. The most important, personally, was that Bobbie was found to be suffering from carcinoma of the uterus and had to have a total hysterectomy. The operation was performed by surgeon H. C. Taylor and our friend, gynaecologist Grogan O'Connell, on 17 June, at the Sloane Hospital for Women, in 168th Street. She was in hospital for four weeks, with daily X-ray treatment, which continued for two weeks after leaving hospital. I commuted each afternoon from the Institute to 168th Street to see her. We remained good friends of Grogan O'Connell and his wife, and over the next 20 years I made a point of visiting him whenever I went to New York.

The other two matters were more pleasant. The first was a letter from Sir Howard Florey, dated 19 December, 1948, stating that he had been authorized by the Interim Council of The Australian National University to offer me the Chair of Microbiology in the John Curtin School of Medical Research. He also mentioned that he had enjoyed reading my paper in The Lancet (Fenner, 1948b). He suggested that while in the United States I should look into the equipment and design of microbiological laboratories, with a view to the design of the building in Canberra. I accepted the offer immediately, and said that during the next three months I intended to spend about four days each three weeks visiting microbiological centres in New York, New Haven, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. He knew that I was leaving America at the end of July, and later wrote to say that the other two men who had been appointed as professors in the John Curtin School, Adrien Albert and Hugh Ennor, would be visiting him in Oxford during the first week in August.

The other very pleasant surprise, in June 1949, was the news that I had been awarded the 1949 David Syme Prize for Scientific Research, given for ‘the best original research work in biology, natural philosophy (physics), chemistry or geology during the preceding two years’. It was founded in 1905, was open to all persons resident in Australia for at least five years, and was at the time one of the most prestigious awards in Australia. I was doubly delighted because my father had been awarded the same prize 20 years earlier, in 1929, for his studies in physiography. Since both father and son had had such a close association with Ballarat, in 1978 I presented both medals and accompanying photographs of the recipients to the Ballarat Historical Park Association. Much later, in 2001, when I was assembling my various medals for presentation to the ANU, the University of Melbourne kindly provided me with a duplicate of my 1949 Syme Prize medal.