# Frederic Jevons

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{{Short description|British-Australian Professor of biochemistry and educator}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox person
|name          = Frederic Raphael Jevons
|birth_name    = Frederic Raphael Bettelheim
|birth_date    = 19 September 1929 
|birth_place   = Vienna, Austria
|death_date    = {{Death date and age|df=y|2012|09|30|1929|09|19}}
|death_place   = Melbourne, Australia
|known_for     = Educationalist, first vice-chancellor of [Deakin University](/source/Deakin_University)
|alma_mater    = [King's College, Cambridge](/source/King's_College%2C_Cambridge)
|employer      = [University of Melbourne](/source/University_of_Melbourne)
|occupation    = [Biochemistry](/source/Biochemistry)
|spouse        = Grete ("Dita") Bradel
|children      = two sons
|parents       = Fritz and Hedwig Bettelheim 
}}

'''Frederic Raphael Jevons''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AO}} (born 19 September 1929 in [Austria](/source/Austria) as '''Frederic Raphael Bettelheim''', died 30 September 2012 in [Melbourne](/source/Melbourne))<ref>{{cite news|url=http://tributes.theage.com.au/obituaries/theage-au/obituary.aspx?pid=160235872|title=Frederic Jevons|work=[The Age](/source/The_Age)|date=3 October 2012|accessdate=21 December 2018}}</ref> was a British Professor of [biochemistry](/source/biochemistry) and later an Australian educator. He was informally known as '''Fred Jevons''' and since 1977 lived and worked mostly in Australia.

==Early life==
Born in Austria in 1929, Jevons survived [the Holocaust](/source/the_Holocaust) by being sponsored by a family in England to attend a boarding school in Norfolk. The young Bettelheim was educated at [Norwich High School for Boys](/source/Norwich_High_School_for_Boys), joining the household of his school's headmaster, Mr J. H. W. Jevons, from whom he took his new surname. During the [Second World War](/source/Second_World_War), the school moved from [Norwich](/source/Norwich) to [Loddon](/source/Loddon%2C_Norfolk) and changed its name to [Langley School](/source/Langley_School%2C_Loddon). His parents, Hedwig and Fritz Bettelheim, survived WWII by escaping from Austria to [Venezuela](/source/Venezuela), but were separated from their children for some ten years. Jevons, as he was now known, was reunited with his parents in 1948.<ref>{{cite web|author=Hay, Roy|title=My Christmas reading|url=https://sesasport.com/?p=180|website=Sports and Editorial Services Australia|date=13 September 2010|accessdate=21 December 2018}}</ref>

Jevons matriculated at [King's College, Cambridge](/source/King's_College%2C_Cambridge), in 1946,<ref>[http://www.kingsmembers.org/person/4211387/University-of-Melbourne-Frederic-Jevons.htm Frederic R. Jevons] at kingsmembers.org</ref> where he held a scholarship and took a 1st class degree in the [Natural Sciences Tripos](/source/Natural_Sciences_Tripos) in 1950. He graduated Doctor of Philosophy at Cambridge in 1953 and [Doctor of Science](/source/Doctor_of_Science) at the [University of Manchester](/source/University_of_Manchester) in 1966.<ref name=JEVONS>''JEVONS, Prof. Frederic Raphael'', in ''Who's Who 2009'', A. & C. Black, 2008.</ref>

==Career==
Jevons was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the [University of Washington, Seattle](/source/University_of_Washington%2C_Seattle), 1953–1954, then a [Fellow](/source/Fellow) of King's College, Cambridge, 1953–1959. He was also University Demonstrator in Biochemistry at Cambridge, 1956–1959, before returning to Manchester University as Lecturer in Biological Chemistry 1959–1966, when he was appointed as the University's Professor of Liberal Studies in Science, holding that chair until 1975. He undertook [British Council](/source/British_Council) tours in [India](/source/India), East Africa, and [Nigeria](/source/Nigeria), between 1972 and 1975. In 1976, he went to Australia as the first Vice-Chancellor of [Deakin University](/source/Deakin_University), and on his retirement in 1985 was appointed a Professor Emeritus. He was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the [1986 Queen's Birthday Honours](/source/1986_Queen's_Birthday_Honours_(Australia)).<ref name="itsanhonour">{{Cite web|date=2016-03-10|title=It's an Honour - Honours - Search Australian Honours|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/881374|access-date=2020-09-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310180906/https://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/honour_roll/search.cfm?aus_award_id=881374&search_type=quick&showInd=true|archive-date=10 March 2016}}</ref><ref name=JEVONS/>

From 1986 to 1987 Jevons was briefly a distance education consultant in southern Africa, before returning to Australia as Professor of Science and Technology Policy at [Murdoch University](/source/Murdoch_University), 1988–1992. In 1992 he went back to Manchester, as Simon Senior Research Fellow. From 1994 to 1996 he was an Honorary Professorial Fellow at [Monash University](/source/Monash_University), then joined the [University of Melbourne](/source/University_of_Melbourne) as an Honorary Professorial Associate in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science.<ref name=JEVONS/>

==Other work==
*Chairman, General Studies Committee, Schools Council, 1974–1975<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Chairman, Graduate Careers Council of Australia, 1976–1980<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Member, Joint Matriculation Board, Manchester, 1969–1975<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Member of Council, Science Museum of Victoria, 1980–1983<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Member of Council, Museum of Victoria, 1983–1987<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Member of Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Executive Committee, 1981–1982<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Member of Australian Science and Technology Council, 1986–1989<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Interviewer for Civil Service Commission on Final Selection Boards, 1970–75<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Adviser to Leverhulme project on educational objectives in applied science, [Strathclyde University](/source/Strathclyde_University), 1972–1975<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Member of Editorial Advisory Board of ''Studies in Science Education'', 1974–1984, and of ''Scientometrics'', 1978 to date, and of ''Australasian Studies in History and Philosophy of Science'', 1980–1986<ref name=JEVONS/>

==Selected publications==
*''The Biochemical Approach to Life'', 1964 (and 2nd edition, 1968): translated into Italian, Spanish, Japanese, German
*''The Teaching of Science: education, science and society'', 1969
*''University Perspectives'', 1970 (joint ed.)
*''Wealth from Knowledge: studies of innovation in industry'', 1972
*''What Kinds of Graduates do we Need?'', 1972 (joint ed.)
*''Science Observed: science as a social and intellectual activity'', 1973
*''Knowledge and Power'', 1976

==Honours==
*Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), 1986<ref name=itsanhonour/>
*Hon. [DLitt](/source/DLitt), Deakin University, 1986<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Hon. [DSc](/source/DSc), Manchester, 1986<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Life Governor, [Geelong Hospital](/source/Geelong_Hospital), 1986<ref name=JEVONS/>
*Inaugural winner, [UNESCO](/source/UNESCO) Prize for Science and Technology Policy, 1992<ref name=JEVONS/>
*The Fred Jevons Building on Deakin University's Geelong Campus was named in honour of Jevons

==Private life==
Jevons got married in 1956 to Grete and they had two sons<ref name=JEVONS/> one of which is Colin Jevons.<ref>{{cite news|work=[The Sydney Morning Herald](/source/The_Sydney_Morning_Herald)|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/vision-set-course-for-deakin-20121017-27rs8.html|title=Vision set course for Deakin|author=Colin Jevons|author2=John Catford|date=18 October 2012|accessdate=21 December 2018}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jevons, Frederic}}
Category:1929 births
Category:People educated at Langley School, Loddon
Category:20th-century British biochemists
Category:Fellows of King's College, Cambridge
Category:Academic staff of Deakin University
Category:2012 deaths
Category:British educational theorists
Category:Officers of the Order of Australia

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Frederic Jevons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Jevons) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Jevons?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.