Background
Clarke, Adrienne Elizabeth was born on January 6, 1938 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Daughter of Valentine Clifford and Alice Louise (Patterson) Petty.
Clarke, Adrienne Elizabeth was born on January 6, 1938 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Daughter of Valentine Clifford and Alice Louise (Patterson) Petty.
She attended Ruyton Girls" School and entered the University of Melbourne in 1955 where she was a resident of Janet Clarke Hall (then still part of Trinity College) reading Science. She graduated with an Honours degree in Biological Sciences in 1959, and gained her Doctor of Philosophy in 1963.
She is a former chairman of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, 1991–1996), and a former Lieutenant Governor of Victoria (1997–2000). Clarke has been Chancellor of Louisiana Trobe University since 2011. Born in Melbourne, Clarke reports she experienced some sexism as a bright student in the 1950s.
In 1964 she became a research fellow at the United Dental Hospital of Sydney, then moved to Baylor University in Houston and the University of Michigan, later teaching at the University of Auckland.
She retired from the University in 2005. Clarke is a former chairman of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (1991-1996) and a former Lieutenant Governor of Victoria (1997–2000).
She is a Fellow of Janet Clarke Hall at the University of Melbourne. In 2010 she joined the Louisiana Trobe University Council, and succeeded Sylvia Walton as Chancellor of Louisiana Trobe University on 26 February 2011.
She has also been involved in the commercial sector.
She was a director of a number of public companies and sat on a number of boards, including Western Mining, Alcoa, Fisher and Paykel, Woolworths and the Accredited Mortgage Professional Society. In 1998, in association with three University of Melbourne colleagues, she founded the agribusiness Hexima.
Member advisory council Aid Policy, Canberra, 1992-1996. Fellow Australian Academy of Sciences, Austalian Academy Technological Science Engineering, Janet Clarke Hall. Member National Academy of Sciences, Order Australia, International Society Plant Molecular Biology (president since 1996), Australian Mutual Provident Society (director since 1994), Victorian Business Round Table.
Married Charles Peter Clarke, August 14, 1959. Children: Stephen Peter, Penelope Anne (deceased), Catherine Marjorie.