Birch, Louis Charles

Born in Melbourne, Birch studied at Scotch College Melbourne, and Melbourne University from which he graduated in Agricultural Science in 1939. From 1939 to 1946, he undertook research in the Entomology Department of the Waite Agricultural Institute at Adelaide University. Subsequently, he held a research fellowship in the Zoology Department at the University of Chicago (1946) and a CSIRO Research Scholarship in the Bureau of Animal Population in the Department of Zoological Field Studies at Oxford University (1947).

The University of Sydney appointed Birch to a senior lectureship in Zoology in 1948, to a readership in 1954, and to the Challis Chair of Zoology in 1960. In 1963 the Chair was renamed the Challis Chair of Biology.

During his years at the University of Sydney, Birch held appointments as Visiting Professor at the University of Sao Paulo Brazil (1955), the University of Minnesota USA (1958) and the Department of Genetics in the University of California (1967).

Prior to his retirement in 1983, Birch received numerous awards including a Fulbright Research Scholarship at Columbia University New York (1954), Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Sciences (1961), Member of the Club of Rome (1974), honorary life member of the British Ecological Society (1974) and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1980).

Birch's research extended from the population biology of insects to human ecology and the relation of religion to science. He has been described as an eco-philosopher.

In 1970, the World Council of Churches appointed Birch to the position of Vice Moderator of the Department of Church and Society. In 1990, Birch shared the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion described as "the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for religion". According to "The University of Sydney News" 20 March 1990, Birch is the first Australian and the second scientist to win this prize. He gave part of the prize money to the University of Sydney to endow an annual lecture on the human aspects of science and technology.

Publications include "The Distribution and Abundance of Animals" and "The Ecological Web" co-authored with H G Andrewartha, "Nature and God" and "The Liberation of Life" co-authored with J Cobb
These notes are based mostly on data in series 1 and 8 of Birch's personal archives.

An obituary for him by Malcolm Brown was first published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 23 December 2009 and is available online at Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University.