Early in my term as Director, decisions had to be made on two departments and one unit, after their heads had retired or resigned. David Catcheside had been appointed Professor of Genetics in the John Curtin School in 1964, on the understanding that he would act as Adviser to the University on the development of biological research, as distinct from medical research, in the ANU. The Research School of Biological Sciences was established in October 1967, with Catcheside as Director, and he and most members of his staff were transferred to its payroll. However, they continued to occupy their existing laboratories in the John Curtin School until the building of the new School was completed early in 1973. Robert Kirk, a human geneticist who had taken up duty as a Senior Fellow in June 1967, elected to remain in the John Curtin School as the sole academic staff member of the Human Genetics Group, which was attached for administration to the Department of Clinical Science until the Department of Human Biology was established in 1970 (see below).
My most difficult decision concerned the future of the Department of Medical Chemistry after Adrien Albert retired, at age 65, in December 1972. The Department occupied all four storeys of the rear west wing, a situation justified in the early days by the fact that it was the only department of chemistry in the University and there was a need for a two-storey section to accommodate production equipment. However, a Research School of Chemistry was established in the Institute of Advanced Studies in 1964 and its building was completed in 1967. By the late 1960s, there was growing pressure for additional laboratory space in the John Curtin School, especially for the developing work in pharmacology, and proposals for the School's submission to the Australian Universities Commission for the 1972–74 triennium were urgently required. In 1969, after extensive discussion by Faculty and Faculty Board, including a subcommittee comprising the Director, Professor Geoffrey Badger (University of Adelaide), Professor R. D. Wright (University of Melbourne and long-time member of the ANU Council), Professors Frank Gibson and Alexander Ogston (Biochemistry and Physical Biochemistry in JCSMR), it was decided that when Albert retired, at the end of 1972, no replacement would be sought and the Department would be contracted to a Group. I fully expected that some members of this Group would transfer to the Research School of Chemistry, but that did not occur and the Group was not disbanded until 1985.