Professor Robert Gerard Milton Wake was a distinguished biochemist whose career was devoted to the University of Sydney. Born on 8 August 1933 in Wangi Wangi, New South Wales, he began his undergraduate studies at the University of Sydney in 1950, obtaining his MSc in 1956 and PhD in 1958. He conducted postdoctoral research as a National Institutes of Health Project Associate at the University of Wisconsin (1958-1959), a US Public Health Service Post-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine (1959-1961), and briefly as Research Assistant in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford in 1961. Returning to the University of Sydney's Department of Biochemistry, he served as Lecturer (1961-1963), Senior Lecturer (1964-1970), Reader (1970-1976), and was appointed McCaughey Professor of Biochemistry in 1977, a position he held until his retirement in 1999. Wake was a dedicated educator, excelling in undergraduate teaching and providing exemplary guidance to postgraduate students.

Wake's research specializations encompassed the physical biochemistry of the milk protein κ-casein and its enzymatic transformation by rennin, as well as the molecular biology of bacterial chromosome replication, with a primary focus on Bacillus subtilis. He made pioneering discoveries, including the first demonstration that the B. subtilis chromosome is circular—the second bacterium after Escherichia coli for which this was established—and that replication proceeds bidirectionally from a common origin via two replication forks. His work elucidated multi-forked chromosome replication, the replication terminus region, and control mechanisms through studies of sporulation and germination, revealing that septation can occur independently of chromosome termination. Additional contributions included early evidence for in vitro semi-conservative DNA replication and chromosomal concatamers in bacteriophage lambda. Wake received the Lemberg Medal and Oration from the Australian Biochemical Society in 1981 and was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1985. He held influential roles such as President of the Australian Biochemical Society (1984-1986), Member of the Australian Research Grants Committee (1979-1982), Vice-President of the Australian Academy of Science (1990-1993), and Chairman of the Scientific Programme Committee for the 7th Congress of the Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists (1992-1995).