Professor David P. Mellor (1903-1980) was Head of the School of Chemistry at UNSW from 1956 to 1968, having spent 26 years at the University of Sydney, followed by 14 years as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at UNSW.
His research interests were mainly concerned with the properties and structures of metal complex compounds. He also made considerable contributions to chemical education at the secondary and tertiary levels.
Since 1960, UNSW has been active in developing new approaches to the teaching of chemistry within secondary schools through its summer schools, the proceedings of which were published in the Approach to Chemistry series, including the commercially published Chemical Data Book. Using the royalties from these publications, the David Mellor Chemical Education Fund was established in recognition of the contributions made by Professor Mellor in the field of chemical education. The fund is used to endow the Mellor Lecture and Medal.
This fund is administered by the university, with the involvement of the UNSW Chemical Society in the organisation of the visiting lecturers.
A complete list of the previous Mellor Lecturers is given below.
1972 L.E. Strong, Earlham College, Indiana
1974 J.H. Wotiz, Southern Illinois University
1975 D.M. Adams, University of Leicester
1979 D.R. Stranks, University of Adelaide
1980 R.J . Gillespie, McMaster University, Ontario
1981 A. Kornhauser, University of Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
1983 P.J. Fensham, Monash University
1984 P. Sykes, Cambridge University
1987 A.H. Johnstone, University of Glasgow
1995 C.A. Russell, The Open University, UK
1998 T.E. Goodwin, Hendrix College, Arkansas
1999 B. Selinger, Australian National University
2003 S. Warren, University of Cambridge
2008 L. Sydnes, University of Bergen
2014 D. B. Hibbert, UNSW Australia
2015 M.-K. Orgill, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
2017 E. V. Anslyn, The University of Texas at Austin
2019 B. Parker, Queen Mary, University of London
2014 UNSW Chemical Society Mellor Lecture
Professor David P. Mellor