Dr William Birch AM FRSV is Curator Emeritus at Museum Victoria. Until his retirement at the end of 2013 he was Senior Curator in Geosciences, responsible for researching and developing the State’s geological collections. His geological work has taken him to many far-flung places in Australia and the rest of the world, such as Siberia, Greenland, Pakistan, Japan and Canada, where he has collected rocks and minerals for the Museum. During his tenure, the Museum’s mineral and rock collections have more than doubled in size, and their scope and value have considerably increased. He has described nearly 40 new minerals, published about 210 papers and articles, and delivered talks at many international conferences, as well as to local societies and community groups.

Bill has been an active member and leader of a number of science associations and societies, including the Mineralogical Society of Victoria and the Geological Society of Australia. He was elected to the RSV’s Council in 2007, was twice elected President of the Royal Society of Victoria, serving from 2013 to 2017, and continued to serve with the Society’s Executive Committee as Immediate Past President from 2017 to 2021. Bill continues to serve as the Editor in Chief of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Victoria in 2021.