Veterinary surgeon and public health physician Professor Rick Speare has died from injuries obtained in a car accident. He was 68.
Speare’s colleagues at the Wildlife Disease Association have described him as very important in the field of wildlife disease and the One Health Initiative.
His main interests were in control of communicable diseases in human and in animal populations.
Speare had an extensive history of applied research on communicable diseases, investigating areas from worldwide strategies to control a pandemic fungal disease of amphibians, chytridiomycosis, to experimental hookworm infections in humans.
Among other achievements, he helped James Cook University build public health as a key discipline, with the Anton Breinl Centre for Public Health and Tropical Medicine becoming a hub for health professionals interested in the tropics.
SAM WORRAD