John Macadam

Dr. John Macadam (May 1827 – 2 September 1865), was an Australian (Scottish-born) chemist, medical teacher and politician. The genus Macadamia was named after him in 1857 by his colleague Ferdinand von Mueller.

Macadam was born in Northbank, near Glasgow, Scotland. He studied chemistry at the Andersonian University and the University of Edinburgh, later switching to medicine at Glasgow. In 1855, he went to Melbourne, where he had been appointed as a lecturer in chemistry and natural science at Scotch College. He later became the first lecturer to teach at the University of Melbourne School of Medicine and on 3 March 1862 he commenced lectures in chemistry. In 1858 he was appointed the Victorian Government Analytical Chemist.

Between 1857 and 1862 Macadam served as Honorary Secretary of The Philosophical Institute of Victoria which later became the Royal Society of Victoria, and was appointed Vice-President in 1863. He was also a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Victorian Parliament, representing Castlemaine.

Macadam died in 1865 after a ship-board accident. His grave is in Melbourne General Cemetery and he is commemorated in an exhibition in the School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne.