Ernest James Goddard

Ernest James Goddard (20 February 1883 – 17 January 1948), was an Australian professor of biology.

Education Ernest James Goddard was born on 20 February 1883 in Newcastle, New South Wales, one of six sons born to Alfred and Elizabeth Goddard. He attended Maitland High School and then his family moved to Sydney for his and his brother's education at the University of Sydney where he studied first a B.A. in 1904, and then took a BSc in 1906, with honours in zoology and palaeontology.

Career Goddard was appointed a junior demonstrator in biology while in the final years of his science degree, and also upon his graduation in 1906. Professor Edgeworth David employed him as a biologist for the Royal Society Expedition of Fiji. Upon his return from Fiji in 1908, Goddard became a Macleay Linnean Research Fellow in Zoology at the University of Sydney. He received the first D.Sc. degree awarded by the University of Sydney in 1910. Much of the content of this dissertation was published in the Journal of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. This led to his being offered the Chair of Zoology, Geology and Mineralogy at Victoria College, (Stellenbosch University from 1918), South Africa. The Department of Geology would be later split from his role, and he would mainly oversee zoology.

Goddard continued to publish, especially in the areas of his PhD research on leeches and earthworms. He was especially interested in agricultural and economic biology, particularly entomology. He spoke on the use of cactoblastis in prickly pear eradication

Goddard became the first Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture in 1927. He then became involved with the establishment of a Faculty of Medicine, especially a degree in Dentistry. After many years of negotiation and with Goddard defending his department's biology courses in the Dentistry Diploma course, the Faculty of Dentistry was established in 1935 with Goddard as the first dean. From 1931, Goddard worked toward establishing a Medical School, even getting the Masonic Lodge to donate their old building for an Anatomy School. In 1935, Goddard acted as spokesman on a visit to the Queensland Premier, William Forgan Smith, and was so persuasive that it was announced in Parliament the next day that a Faculty of Medicine would be established in 1936. Glass houses and laboratories for plant pathology, entomology and an insectarium were acquired through grant money and a forestry course commenced in 1924. Goddard appealed for "an end to anthropocentrism in the study of Man. Instead he called for the "discovery, elucidation and dissemination of principles that will enable us to envisage with scientific precision the interdependence and inter-reaction of the animal organism or individual and its environment".

Other activities Goddard helped form the Entomological Society of Queensland in 1923. He was president of the Royal Society of Queensland in 1927, the Queensland Naturalists' Club, and the Australian-American Association. He was Chairman of the Queensland branch of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science. which he had toiled to establish and where he planned to retire to continue research, Goddard died of a heart attack on 17 January 1948. He was survived by his wife.

The Goddard Biological Sciences building fronting the Great Court of the University of Queensland was named for him.

After his death, the Goddard Memorial Fund was set up, the money from which helped to establish the Heron Island Research Station, then run by the Great Barrier Reef Committee. The University of Queensland would take over its operation in 1970, first as a partner and then as owner in 1980.

The Ernest James Goddard Oration was established by the Queensland Branch of the Australian Dental Association to commemorate his work as a pioneer of dental education in Queensland. The 20th oration was delivered in 2008.