Barbara Fletcher

Barbara Fletcher was a gymnast for Australia at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. She was an Australian Champion on uneven parallel bars and balance beam and competed at the 1966 World Championships. Fletcher graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1963 and earned a teaching certificate in 1964.

Fletcher taught physical education from 1965-69 and then earned a BSc in zoology in 1970, while only a part-time student. She then became a lecturer and researcher in zoology, completing a PhD in 1976 in automotive physiology and pharmacology.

As Barbara Evans, she later taught at Melbourne University in the Department of Zoology and became a member of the Council of Melbourne University in 1990. She authored several textbooks in biology with her research focused on Australian fauna and included the investigation of the side-effects of treatment with antihypertensive drugs; the cardiovascular and respiratory physiology of molluscs, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals; and the diving physiology of vertebrates.

Evans became a member of several scientific societies including the Australian Physiological and Pharmacological Society, the Australian Neurosciences Society, and the Society of Experimental Biology (England). She has been Research Associate, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, England (1981); Senior Research Associate with the Baker Medical Research Institute, Melbourne; (1982-90); and a Visiting Scientist at the Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Canada, (1987). Her research generated numerous articles published in major international peer-reviewed journals.