Professor John Francis was the Honorary Historian, Queensland Division, of the Australian Veterinary Association and Professor of Preventive Veterinary Medicine at the University of Queensland from 1952 to 1983. He came to Australia from England after securing the position at the University of Queensland. He was the namesake of the John Francis Virology Laboratory, opened in 1990 at Pinjarra Hills but since closed.

Dorothy Hill was born on 10 September 1907 in Taringa, Brisbane. She received a scholarship to the University of Queensland, attending between 1925 and 1939. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Geology) with first class honours. Hill was the first woman awarded a gold medal for most outstanding graduate of that year. In 1930 Hill received a Foundation Travelling Scholarship, to study for her PhD from the University of Cambridge, completing it in 1932. She was appointed a research professor in Geology at the University of Queensland in 1959, becoming the first woman appointed to a professorial chair in Australia. She also became in 1965 the first Australian woman to be a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1970 she became the first female president of the Australian Academy of Science. Shed died on 23 April 1997.