Australian mycologist. Lilian Ross Fraser was a citrus pathologist and Chief Biologist for the New South Wales Department of Agriculture. Fraser gained a degree in botany at the University of Sydney (1930) and then carried out postgraduate research on mycorrhizal and sooty mould fungi, and on rainforest ecology in the Barrington Tops. Gaining her doctorate from the University of Sydney in 1937, she went on to work at Imperial College in London and the Imperial Mycological Institute, looking at fungal growth, reproduction and taxonomy. This was followed by a Commonwealth Research Fellowship back at the University of Sydney working on fungal decay of stored apples.

She joined the Department of Agriculture in 1940 as an assistant plant pathologist. She also advised on diseases of ornamental plants and identified leaf-roll as a major problem on grapevines in New South Wales. Fraser was later honoured for her work on citrus pathology as the first woman admitted as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science, and was the first woman admitted to an administrative position in the N.S.W. Department of Agriculture in 1960, when she became Senior Biologist. From 1968 until her retirement in 1973 she was Chief Biologist of the Biological and Chemical Research Institute. Fraser was President of the Linnean Society in 1948-1949 and 1956-1957, and a foundation member of the International Organisation of Citrus Virologists.

Sources:
P. Barkley, 1987, Australasian Plant Pathology, 16(4): 96.