The Fish Department - Research

Dr Frank Hamilton Talbot

Photo © Australian Museum

1930 -
Curator of Fishes: 1965 - 1966
Director of the Australian Museum: 1967 -1975

Frank Talbot specalised in the ecology of coral-reef fishes and the taxonomy of lutjanid fishes. He was also a distinguished university and natural history museum administrator, and is now in his retirement is a leading voice for conservation.

Before arriving at the Australian Museum in 1965, he was the Deputy Director of the South African Museum.

Talbot was Director of the Australian Museum from 1967 until 1975 and was responsible for establishing research stations at One Tree Island and Lizard Island. He also appointed two fish curators at the Museum: John Paxton and Douglass Hoese, and the number of scientific staff increased during his Directorship.

After leaving the Australian Museum in 1975 Talbot was the foundation professor of Environmental Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney, and then, the Director of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and Director of the Natural History Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

Several of Talbot's PhD students from his time at Macquarie University have gone on to high profile careers in ichthyology.

He returned to an active retirement in Sydney in the 1990s.