Mackerras, Mabel Josephine (Jo) (1896 - 1971)

Jo Mackerras was an entomologist and parasitologist who began research into fly-borne diseases in cattle and fatal epizootics in fresh-water fish in 1918, with the help of a Walter and Eliza Hall Fellowship. With her husband Ian Mackerras, she joined CSIR's Division of Economic Entomology in Canberra in 1929. From 1943 she was at the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit in Cairns, where she led pioneering research into malaria control. Post-war, Mackerras worked again at CSIR, this time at Yeerongpilly, as a parasitologist. The lungworm, A. Mackerrasae, was named after her, and she specialised in Australian cockroaches.

• Bancroft, Jo (maiden name)

Books

• CSIRO Division of Entomology, The Insects of Australia: A Textbook for Students and Research Workers, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1970. [ Details... ]
• Mackerras, I.M., M.J. Mackerras, Sheep Blowfly Investigations: The Attractiveness of Sheep for Lucilia Cuprina, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (govt. printer), Melbourne, 1944, 44 pp. [ Details... ]
• Mackerras, I.M., M.J. Mackerras, F.M. Burnet, Experimental Studies of Ephemeral Fever in Australian Cattle, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (govt. printer), Melbourne, 1940, 116 pp. [ Details... ]

Online Resources

• McCarthy, G.J., 'Mackerras, Mabel Josephine (1896-1971)', in Bright Sparcs, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P002188b.htm. [ Details... ]

See also

• Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au. [ Details... ]
• Radi, Heather (ed.), 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology, Women's Redress Press, Sydney, 1988, 258 pp. (Also available at http://www.200australianwomen.com/) [ Details... ]