PIONEERING scientist, bioethicist and educator, the late Sr Regis Mary Dunne RSM has joined the list of Queensland Greats, announced by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today.
Toowoomba-born Sr Dunne made innumerable contributions to medical research, worked for Mater Pathology for more than 30 years, and was the foundation Director of the Queensland Bioethics Centre.
Educated by the Sisters of Mercy at St Saviours Primary School, Toowoomba, she went on to study at All Hallows’ School, Brisbane.
After school, Sr Dunne trained and worked as a teacher, teaching at both the schools she had attended and specialising in the subjects of home science, chemistry, physiology and religion.
In 1947/48 she entered the Sisters of Mercy as a novitiate at Nudgee and in 1949 was appointed to the Mater Public Hospital laboratory, undertaking training as a Medical Laboratory Scientist through part-time study at QUT whilst working full time as a trainee biochemist.
After completing her lab training, Sr Dunne pioneered the development of a procedure for chromosome analysis that led to the setting up of a cytogenetics diagnostic service.
Sr Dunne was asked to lecture the medical students at The University of Queensland in microbiology and cytogenetics.
Ethics was another of Sr Dunne’s passions and in 1981 the Queensland Bioethics Centre was established by Brisbane Archbishop Francis Rush with Sr Dunne as the first director.
As a result of her extensive knowledge on the subject, Sr Dunne sat on numerous national, state and local ethics committees and advisory boards.
She also sat on a many hospital and university ethics committees: Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital, Holy Spirit, Queensland University of Technology, Griffith University, The University of Queensland, Queensland Emergency Services, and the Catholic Bishops Medico-Moral Committee, amongst others.
In 2007 Sr Dunne received an Order of Australia for service to medicine, particularly through promotion and support of bioethics in medical research and as a researcher in genetics.
Sr Dunne, died in April last year after a lifetime and ground-breaking contribution to global science, healthcare and ethics. She proved an inspiration for many young scientists, researchers, students and healthcare professionals.
In all, 116 individuals and 17 institutions have now been honoured as Queensland Greats since the awards were started in 2001.
