Frank Oliver - one of the founding fathers of QUT Chemistry

Frank Oliver – along with fellow Chemistry academics Roland ‘Rolly’ Noakes, Len Amos and Eric O’Reilly – is known as a ‘founding father’ of Chemistry at QUT because of his role in championing Chemistry at QUT’s predecessor institutions, the Central Technical College (CTC) and Queensland Institute of Technology (QIT). Nicknamed ‘FO’ by colleagues because he always signed ‘FO’, Frank was universally regarded as a true gentleman and scholar who was always willing to help younger and more inexperienced staff in their careers; and is remembered by former students as an excellent Chemistry teacher. Frank enjoyed a distinguished teaching career with the Central Technical College where he became Head of Chemistry before transitioning to the same position within the newly created QIT in 1964. He became the foundation Head of the School of Applied Science at QIT from 1967 to 1973. A Frank Oliver Memorial Fund was established in the 1970’s, with funds being disbursed to a “Laboratory Deposit Bursary Trust Fund” in late 1981. Two decades later, the Frank Oliver Prize was established in 2000 with a donation from the QUT Industrial Chemists Group and Industrial and Applied Chemistry Past Students’ Association, led by staff members the late Neil Seils and the late Rowland Noakes. The funds to establish the prize were raised through profits on events managed by the Industrial Chemists Group and donations. The then Faculty of Science chose to turn this fund into an endowment and to use the interest earned to sponsor a prize in Frank’s honour. It is understood that the Frank Oliver Prize was awarded according to merit criteria to the highest performing students in the Chemistry major of the Associate Degree in Applied Science. In 2020, the Frank Oliver Prize ($1,000) is awarded annually to the graduand completing a QUT Honours degree course with a major in Chemistry who has achieved the highest grade point average of all students graduating in that academic year.