biology

Struan Sutherland

Struan Sutherland is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Struan Sutherland rather than just read about it. In short: Struan Keith Sutherland AO (17 June 1936 – 11 January 2002) was an Australian medical researcher who developed effective antivenoms and other treatments for people bitten or stung by venomous Australian wildlife. Early life Sutherland was born in Sydney and grew up in Bendigo, Victoria.

Key takeaways

Struan Sutherland belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Struan Sutherland to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Struan Sutherland from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Struan Keith Sutherland AO (17 June 1936 – 11 January 2002) was an Australian medical researcher who developed effective antivenoms and other treatments for people bitten or stung by venomous Australian wildlife.

Early life Sutherland was born in Sydney and grew up in Bendigo, Victoria. He studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1960, and served in the Royal Australian Navy from 1962 to 1965. Sutherland earned a Doctor of Science doctorate.

The CSL years In 1966, Dr Sutherland joined the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) and was soon appointed the Head of Immunology Research, a position which he held for 28 years. In the 1970s, Dr Sutherland developed the pressure immobilisation technique (a first-aid procedure) for both snake and funnel-web bites, replacing treatments such as tourniquets that were often harmful to the patient. The death in January 1979 of 31/32-year-old Christine Sturges from a Sydney funnel-web spider bite prompted Sutherland to look for funnel-web spider antivenom. Many previous researchers had failed to develop such an antivenom, but Sutherland persevered. In January 1980, two-year-old James Cully was bitten by a Sydney funnel-web spider and died three days later. This was the 13th recorded victim of Sydney funnel-web spider bites. Later that year, Sutherland's team produced an effective antivenom; since then, no deaths have been recorded from Sydney funnel-web spider bites. The antivenom had its first success when it was used to treat a 49-year-old Sydney man, Gordon Wheatley, who was bitten by a Sydney funnel-web spider on 31 January 1981. He completely recovered after 2 days in hospital. Dr Sutherland also led research into snakebite treatment, working on antivenoms and developing venom detection kits to help hospital staff determine appropriate treatment for a bite.

Later years In 1994, CSL was privatised and the antivenom research program was closed, prompting Sutherland to leave the organisation for the University of Melbourne. Here he founded the Australian Venom Research Unit, where he worked until 1999 when striatonigral degeneration, a condition similar to Parkinson's disease, forced him to retire. Even in retirement he continued to work, co-authoring three books, including "Venomous Creatures of Australia", which became its publisher's (Oxford University Press) best-selling Australian book.

Personal life Sutherland was married three times.

Media appearances and autobiography Sutherland had a humorous interview with Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine in Last Chance to See. Sutherland's autobiography, A Venomous Life, was published in 1998 by Highland House Publishing, Melbourne (ISBN 1-86447-026-7). He also wrote Hydroponics for Everyone, about one of his hobbies.

Death When he died in 2002, he had already written his own death notice: "Struan would like to inform his friends and acquaintances that he fell off his perch on Friday, 11 January 2002, and is to be privately cremated. No flowers please. Donations to Australian Venom Research Unit, Melbourne University."

Honours In the Australia Day honours of 2002, two weeks after his death, Sutherland was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), effective from 7 February 2000, for "service to science as a leading contributor to research in clinical toxicology and the biology of Australia's venomous creatures, and for the development of the funnel web spider antivenom".

References

Sources Struan K Sutherland, A Venomous Life: the Autobiography of Professor Struan Sutherland (Melbourne: Hyland House, 1998). Mark Whitaker, Spiderman, Weekend Australian Magazine, 13–14 March 1999.

External links Medical Journal of Australia obituary BMJ obituary Entry at PM&C Awards site

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Struan Sutherland

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Struan Sutherland claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Struan Sutherland before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Struan Sutherland ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Struan Sutherland

In research: Struan Sutherland appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Struan Sutherland in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Struan Sutherland is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1936 births, 2002 deaths, Australian medical researchers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Struan Sutherland outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Struan Sutherland in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Struan Sutherland means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Struan Sutherland out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Struan Sutherland in simple terms?

Why does Struan Sutherland matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Struan Sutherland?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Struan Sutherland.