Ian Hume

Ian Hume is Professor Emeritus in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, at the University of Sydney. He earned a BSc (Agric) (Hons) from the University of Western Australia in 1966 and a PhD in ruminant physiology from the same university in 1970. He received a Doctor of Science degree from the University of New England in 1986 for his dissertation 'Digestive Physiology and Nutrition of Herbivorous Mammals'. After postdoctoral research at the University of Kentucky Department of Animal Science and teaching 'Nutrition of Wildlife and Fish' at the University of California, Davis, he joined the Faculty of Rural Science at the University of New England as a lecturer in 1973. In 1987, he became Chair in Biology at the University of Sydney's School of Biological Sciences, serving as Challis Professor of Biology from 1994 until retirement in 2003.

A preeminent nutritional physiologist, Ian Hume has advanced the digestive physiology of domestic sheep and wild mammals, notably marsupials including omnivorous bandicoots, leaf-eating possums and gliders, hindgut-fermenting wombats, and foregut-fermenting kangaroos. His 1982 monograph offered the first synthesis of marsupial digestive physiology, inspiring further studies by him and his students, underpinning ecological and behavioural research, and aiding conservation of endangered species. Key works include Marsupial Nutrition (Cambridge University Press, 1999), awarded the Whitley Medal in 2000, and Comparative Physiology of the Vertebrate Digestive System (Cambridge University Press, 2005). He has authored or co-authored four books, co-edited three, and published over 170 scientific articles, cementing his status as a world leader in comparative physiology. Honors encompass Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science (2007), Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), Troughton Medal from the Australian Mammal Society (2004), and Honorary Life Membership of the Australian Mammal Society and Comparative Nutrition Society.

Professional Email: ian.hume@sydney.edu.au