Professor Bruce T’oomba Mayes Becomes Tenth Dean of the Faculty in 1957
From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive
Professor Bruce T’oomba Mayes, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, took over the Deanship from Sir Edward Ford in 1957. Mayes was a graduate of the University of Sydney and is said to have been an imaginative teacher and a visionary with a great respect for research. In the 1930s he introduced Ascheim’s method of pregnancy testing in Australia and worked with paediatric ophthalmologist (Sir) Norman M Gregg who believed that foetal abnormalities might be associated with maternal viral infection. Mayes was particularly interested in the genesis of cataract, which at the time was thought to have been virally associated. He was appointed to the Chair of Obstetrics in 1941.
During the wartime 1940s he was concerned that medical graduates were not afforded adequate opportunities for obstetrical experience, and the lectures he delivered to these students and his books stemming from them, became internationally renowned. He was awarded the Sims-Black Travelling Professorship in 1954 which provided him with the opportunity to present a six-month lecture tour of Great Britain. In the same year, Mayes was able to increase the research undertaken in his Department.
With Professor (Sir) Lorimer Dods, he was successful in his application to State Cabinet to establish The Queen Elizabeth II Research Institute for Mothers and Infants at the University of Sydney for research into the welfare concerns of mothers and children. Mayes held the position of Dean from 1957-1960 at a time when the Faculty was rapidly expanding.
Go to next article in timeline: The Queen Elizabeth II Research Institute for Mothers and Babies Opens in 1958