David Paver Mellor

David Paver Mellor (19 March 1903 – 9 January 1980) was an Australian inorganic chemist. A graduate of the University of Tasmania, he was a lecturer and reader at the University of Sydney from 1929 to 1955, and was the Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of New South Wales from 1955 to 1969. He researched on the properties and structures of coordination complexes. He was the author of The Role of Science and Industry, a volume in the official history series Australia in the War of 1939–1945. This volume broke new ground in Australian military history in dealing with the development and acquisition of military equipment.

Early life David Paver Mellor was born in Launceston, Tasmania, on 19 March 1903, the oldest of the four children of Joseph Frederick William Mellor, a miner, and his wife Amy Florence Sarah Russell. He attended Launceston State High School and then entered the University of Tasmania, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1926.

Chemist Mellor remained at the University of Sydney until 1955, although in 1938 he was a research fellow at the California Institute of Technology, where he conducted research under Linus Pauling. His research there resulted in two papers on crystallography that were published in the Zeitschrift für Kristallographie. Mellor's main research interests centred on the properties and structures of coordination complexes. He served as the president of the Sydney University Chemical Society and was the president of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1941. He was awarded a Doctor of Science degree by the University of Tasmania in 1945, and was promoted to reader at the University of Sydney in 1948.

In 1955, Mellor became the Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the New South Wales University of Technology, He became the head of the school of chemistry in 1956 and the dean of the faculty of science in 1968. He was chief examiner for the Leaving certificate in chemistry and chief examiner for the Higher School Certificate in science. He was also a member of the Secondary Schools Board, the council of the University of New South Wales and the interim council of Macquarie University. In the preface, Mellor wrote:

Mellor also wrote a book on The Evolution of the Atomic Theory (1971), co-edited Chelating Agents and Metal Chelates (1964) with Frank Dwyer, becoming the sole editor after Dwyer's death, He retired in 1969 and lived in the Sydney suburb of Lindfield.

Mellor died at Royal North Shore Hospital on 9 January 1980 and his remains were cremated.

Publications