Marilyn Renfree facts for kids

Marilyn Bernice Renfree (born April 19, 1947) is an amazing Australian scientist. She studies animals, especially how marsupials reproduce and grow. Marsupials are animals like kangaroos and wallabies. She got her PhD from the Australian National University. Later, she became a professor at the University of Melbourne.

Early Life and Education

Marilyn Renfree was born in Brisbane, Queensland. Her family later moved to Canberra. There, she attended Canberra Girls' Grammar School. She enjoyed subjects like French, German, English, and especially biology.

After school, Marilyn studied biology at the Australian National University. She loved learning about how living things work. Her favorite topics were biochemistry and how animals reproduce. For her Honours degree, she studied the fluids inside baby tammar wallabys. She even invented a new way to catch female wallabies on Kangaroo Island for her research!

Research on Marsupial Reproduction

Marilyn Renfree's PhD project focused on how marsupial mothers and their babies interact. She made some very important discoveries.

Embryonic Diapause and Placenta

She found a way to "wake up" marsupial embryos. These embryos can go into a "suspended animation" state called embryonic diapause. Marilyn showed that giving them special injections could make them develop fully.

She also proved that marsupials have a working placenta. This organ helps the mother pass nutrients to her baby. It also makes hormones, just like in other mammals. Her research showed the placenta carefully controls what goes from mother to baby.

Uteri Differences and First Paper

Marilyn also discovered that the two uteri (wombs) of kangaroos and wallabies act differently during pregnancy. The one holding the baby grows much larger. Her first scientific paper about this was published in Nature, a very famous science magazine.

Working with Opossums

After her PhD, Marilyn worked in the United States. She studied how hormones affect the uteri of animals. While there, she started researching opossums. She even put an ad in the local newspaper to find opossums for her studies! People in the area soon knew her as the "possum lady from Australia."

Research in Scotland and Australia

Later, Marilyn moved to Scotland to learn about genetics. She studied fluids in baby mice, similar to her earlier work with wallabies.

In 1973, she returned to Australia. She became a lecturer at Murdoch University in Perth. There, she started a group of tammar wallabies for her research. She also began studying agile wallabies to understand how marsupials control milk production.

Monash University and Family Life

In 1982, Marilyn moved to Monash University in Melbourne. She started her third group of tammar wallabies there. For ten years, she focused full-time on her research.

Her two daughters, Tamsin and Kirsten, were born in 1983 and 1986. Marilyn also helped with a TV series called The Nature of Australia. She showed how to film wallabies giving birth. Her work proved that marsupial babies can affect their mothers' bodies during birth, just like other mammals.

Leadership at Melbourne University

In 1991, Marilyn became the head of the Zoology Department at the University of Melbourne. She held this important role for many years. In 2011, she was a lead scientist on the first project to map the entire genetic code (genome) of a kangaroo. Today, she helps decide who wins Australia's Prime Minister's Science Prizes.

Awards and Recognition

Marilyn Renfree has received many awards for her amazing work.

• In 1980, she won the Gottschalk Medal.
• In 1997, she received the Mueller Medal and became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
• She won the Gold Conservation Medal in 2000.
• In 2003, she was given the Centenary Medal.
• In 2013, she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). This was for her excellent work in marsupial reproduction research.
• She received the Carl G. Hartmann Award in 2019.
• In 2020, she was awarded the Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture.
• In 2021, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society, a very high honor for scientists.

Important Mentors

Marilyn had several people who helped her a lot during her studies and career.

• Her biology teacher, Mrs. Nicholson (or "Mrs. Nick"), was a big inspiration. She was one of the few female Doctors in Science in Australia at that time.
• Marilyn's sister, Bev, also worked in science. She was a technician for a famous scientist named Frank Fenner.
• Professor Amoroso was very supportive of Marilyn's PhD work. They even wrote a scientific paper together in 1979.

A Woman in Science

When Marilyn wanted to go to university, her father was surprised. He expected her brother to go, not her or her sister. He told her she had one year to prove herself. Marilyn worked hard and earned a scholarship. This meant she could pay for her own studies. Her father was very proud and supportive after that.

When she was doing her PhD, Marilyn sometimes kept it a secret at parties. She found it simpler to say she worked in the Zoology Department. This shows how different things were for women in science back then.