Rick Speare

Research career Speare worked clinically as both a medical doctor and a veterinarian. He published an important book chapter on the morphology of Strongyloides spp. in "Strogyloidiasis: A Major Roundworm Infection of Man", edited by David Grove (1989). Speare performed significant work on the public health control of human strongyloidiasis caused by Strongyloides stercoralis, particularly in Aboriginal Australian communities. He was the founder of the Australian National Working Group on Strongyloidiasis.

Speare was Director of the JCU School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine from 2009 to 2012 and taught numerous subjects in the university's Masters of Public Health (Tropical Medicine) program, including Human Parasitology. He also undertook a guest lecturing role at Tufts University in the United States.

In 2005, Speare and two colleagues infected themselves with hookworms to study the body's response to the parasites. Speare was instrumental in founding the Atoifi Health Research Group in the Solomon Islands, to help improve public health in the region.

Retirement and death Speare retired from James Cook University in 2012, and was made a member of the Order of Australia in the same year. He remained an emeritus professor and continued to publish research. Speare died in a car accident in the Atherton Tablelands on 5 June 2016. He was survived by his wife Kerry, three sons, two daughters and five grandchildren.