Vale Adjunct Professor Errol Hassan
The University of Queensland pays tribute to the late Adjunct Professor Dr Errol Hassan – celebrated entomologist at UQ’s School of Agriculture and Food Sciences.
Dr Hassan passed away in June, age 87, and his passing ended a distinguished and highly productive academic and scientific career in entomology and crop protection that spanned 49 years.
Although Adjunct Professor Hassan’s work leaves its own legacy, his contributions and achievements in the areas of entomology and agricultural sciences continue to be celebrated by his family and many colleagues.
Throughout his extensive career, Dr Hassan developed many close friendships, and personal and professional associations.
He worked with farming communities throughout Queensland, local growers in Gatton, and agricultural groups overseas in countries like Indonesia, Turkey, Maldives, USA, Canada, and South Korea.
He was well-liked and highly respected and his warm and cheerful smile, generosity, and passion for the science of entomology has left an indelible mark on the lives of many.
Students and faculty staff held Dr Hassan in high regard. He was Patron of the QAC Overseas Students Association and was actively involved in planning and organising excursions, the annual Overseas Students Cultural night, and student barbeques.
Beyond that, Adjunct Professor Hassan was a caring person who showed deep loyalty and a strong commitment to those around him.
These attributes also form part of his legacy, and they cement him firmly and fondly in peoples’ memories, and in those others who knew him well.
After Dr Hassan retired in 2002, he continued to have close associations with UQ Gatton.
He found his second career wind as an Adjunct Professor, delivering lectures in entomology, teaching programs with UQ Skills, and supervising a broad pool of students completing Honours, Masters, and PhD research projects.
Dr Hassan at an Entomology conference in 1963.
Dr Hassan at an Entomology conference in 1963.
Deputy Head of the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Professor Vic Galea, spent more than 30 years working alongside Dr Hassan and looks back on those experiences with great fondness.
“I was filled with sadness to learn of Errol’s passing,” Professor Galea said.
“I met him when I started as a young lecturer in plant pathology within the Plant Protection Department at what was then known as the Queensland Agricultural College (QAC), now UQ Gatton, in 1988.
“He was a wonderfully engaging lecturer and a serious entomologist who was always generous with his time and patient with students as they learned the ropes.
“He always had a smile and only ever saw the possibilities and potential in people and research ideas.
“I will miss his friendship; he is my longest standing colleague.”
Lara Senior, who is a Senior Entomologist with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), first crossed paths with Dr Hassan while working at Gatton Research Station in the late 2000s, where she was invited to co-supervise a PhD student’s research project.
This invitation sparked a special professional partnership and a dear friendship.
“In the following years, I co-supervised several students and we also worked on some research proposals together,” Lara recalls.
“In fact, I had been collaborating on a paper with him before his passing.
“One of his greatest achievements was teaching and lecturing, and the positive impact he had on his students is plain to see.
“Many of my colleagues in DAF who studied at Gatton were taught entomology by Errol and remember him very fondly.
“He was a genuinely lovely person who always made time for a chat and would always ask about me, my family, and acquaintances we had in common.
“He was very generous with his expertise and his time, and I’ll miss him both as a colleague and a friend.”
Dr Hassan’s lifetime of dedication to science, his students, and his community, will ensure his work and name will live on, both through the love of his family and the generations of fellow scientists he helped to inspire.
Adjunct Professor Dr Errol Hassan is survived by his wife Ursula and their three daughters and their families.
Fifty years of excellence
Dr Hassan’s career began at UQ in 1973 as a lecturer in entomology at UQ Gatton, where his infectious enthusiasm and in-depth knowledge of insects and all aspects of biological sciences inspired countless students and colleagues.
Additionally, Dr Hassan made significant contributions to the development of entomology and plant protection course materials and manuals. Throughout his teaching career, Dr Hassan was a dedicated, committed, and engaging lecturer and research mentor.
He was principal supervisor to many higher degree research and honours students. He was also instrumental in setting up, storing, and curating the Plant Protection Department’s extensive insect and butterfly collections.
Dr Errol Hassan, 1973.
Dr Errol Hassan, 1973.
An accomplished scientific writer, Dr Hassan was sole author of five reference books on insect and mite pest identification and insect control management, which continue to be referenced today. He also authored many highly regarded scientific papers, book chapters, symposia proceedings, and workshops. He served as editor on various international zoology, plant biology and entomology journals. His expertise and knowledge were also highly sought after at several international conferences, where he was invited to speak as either keynote or guest speaker on numerous occasions.
His active and highly productive research career at UQ Gatton continued after his retirement, where he became a passionate advocate in the use of ecological-based methods to improve safer pest control strategies, and effective integrated pest management. Much of his later research projects centred on beneficial insects, such as ladybugs and parasitic wasps, essential oils, and plant-based botanical pesticides to manage and control insect and mite pests in agriculture.
Dr Hassan’s contribution to entomology worldwide has been recognised by other colleagues who have named five insect species after him. Two notable examples being the Epitranus hassani sp. and Megastigmus erolhasani wasps.
More recently, one of Dr Hassan’s most cherished research outcomes came in 2019, when he discovered a newly found wasp in the Mojave Desert, California, that he named after his beloved wife of more than 50 years, Ursula.
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