Hilda Josephine Gardner FRACP (née Florey; 6 September 1890 – 18 May 1953) was an Australian bacteriologist, who was a pioneer of laboratory medicine in Australia, specialising in infections and infectious diseases.

Hilda Gardner (left) arriving in Melbourne with her brother, Howard Florey, in 1944

Gardner completed a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from the University of Adelaide in 1912. She undertook residencies in several Adelaide hospitals, before moving to Melbourne to take up a role at the Royal Women's Hospital, and later the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) where she spent the rest of her career as the hospital's only bacteriologist and haematologist working from a small laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, and training many doctors, pathologists and laboratory technicians through a formal training program she initiated at the RMH.[1]

Gardner was the sister of Nobel laureate Howard Florey. Her daughter, Joan Gardner, was also a renowned microbiologist and infection control expert.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Cohn, Helen. "Gardner, Hilda Josephine (1890 –1953)". Encyclopedia of Australian Science. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  2. ^ "Gardner, Joan Forrest (1918–2013)". Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 11 October 2021.