“If we don’t try to create change, things never change,” says The Dyson Bequest’s John Dyson.  

The Dyson Bequest is an extraordinary act of generosity that currently spans three generations of the Dyson family. The $25 million bequest was established by the late Bruce and Jane Dyson in 2000. John, who is Bruce’s nephew, now oversees the Bequest with Jane’s daughter, Rose Gilder; while John’s two daughters, Hope and Annabel, are also increasingly involved.  

Favouring long-term relationships and coffee conversations over detailed applications and exhaustive evaluation reports, Rose and John intentionally use a light-touch approach to the Bequest’s giving.   

“We realised that the standard route of advertising a grant round and receiving 400 applications where we had to say ‘no’ to 95 per cent of them, wasn’t the way to go,” John says. 

“We decided to keep a relatively low profile and be much more proactive in finding organisations where we could build long-term relationships with. It wasn’t about asking for detailed applications or evaluation reports. It was about a phone discussion or a chat over a cup of coffee. We got into trust-based philanthropy a long time ago.”  

With a background in venture capital, John, who is now President of the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), has spent decades working with tech startups and directly with founders. It’s a skillset he says that has proven useful when considering the bold initiatives and long-range outcomes philanthropy can catalyse, as well as giving him a keen awareness of gender inequity when it comes to accessing resources and opportunities. 

“I’m passionate about women in STEM and medical research because of my day job,” John explains.  

“If you look at the statistics in terms of students in these fields it starts out with a reasonably even gender split, but as you go up the medical research hierarchy, the proportion sways towards men. 

“Women have faced discrimination for hundreds of years and Rose and I decided we wanted to do what we could to change that, which is how we came to establish the Dyson Bequest Fellowship,” John continues. 

“We are passionate about supporting gender equity because it’s the right thing to do.”  

Enduring fellowship  

The Dyson Fellowship supports women who are early career researchers with $130,000 a year for five years. Now in its 17th year, the Fellowship has supported four talented medical researchers. 

 “We saw that we could do something small, that hopefully shows other people you can also support these types of causes,” John says of the Fellowship. 

 The Fellowship has grown to become more than funding. Originally, Fellows were chosen from a shortlist of suitable candidates provided by WEHI. This has changed over time with The Dyson Bequest now asking past Fellows to put forward the names of up-and-coming researchers they recommend.  

 “We like this approach because it’s building a strong cohort between all our Fellows, past and present,” John says.   

For Tracy Putoczki, WEHI Professor of Medical Biology and Laboratory Head, within the Personalised Oncology Division, a Dyson Fellowship provided her with a stable base that helped her build upon her early career momentum in gastrointestinal research.  

“The Dyson Fellowship came at a time when I was just setting up my research lab and became a mum with two young boys,” Tracy says. 

 “The support gave me the opportunity to get started and not have the research paused while I was on maternity leave, but make sure it could keep running.” 

 While she’s hopeful that gender inequities in the field are slowly improving, Tracy says female researchers still face challenges that their male counterparts typically don’t.  

 “As medical researchers, we’re evaluated on our productivity,” she explains. “If you’re taking time out to start a family, your productivity naturally falls, and you’re not as competitive at being able to attract funding as someone who’s not had that break. 

 “We’re also evaluated on our international profile, so if you’re unable to travel, you lose networking opportunities and then chances to have larger collaborations across the world, which makes you less competitive again. 

 “On top of that, it’s a high stress, high pressure career. Having financial support like the Fellowship gives you a buffer to be bold and creative because you know you have consistent funding to fall back on. It gives you flexibility to be nimble and clever in a world that’s tricky and difficult.” 

 Of the four women who have received Dyson Fellowships to date, three are now professors in strong career positions with the most recent Fellow following in their footsteps.  

 “By empowering us, the Fellowship has helped us become the people the next generation of young female researchers can see,” Tracy says. “And that’s important in a field that has very much been ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’.” 

For generations to come 

 While the Fellowships are making important contributions to systemic change, John Dyson believes a different gift has potentially done even more to create lasting change in the field of medical research. 

 That honour, he says, belongs to The Dyson Bequest’s $1 million foundational gift in 2018 to build a childcare centre at WEHI – a gift that was recognised with Australians Investing In Women’s Gender-wise Philanthropy Award presented in partnership with Philanthropy Australia. 

 “I really believe it’s the biggest thing we’ve ever done for medical research,” John says. 

 The journey to build a childcare centre onsite at WEHI was a long time in the making.    

 “So many people said, ‘Oh, it will never happen,’” remembers Professor Lynn Corcoran, retired Immunologist and founding Co-chair of WEHI’s Gender Equity Committee established by then-Director, Professor Doug Hilton AO.  

 “But we just kept pushing that door a little bit, then a little bit more. Then, the support of the Dyson Bequest pushed it wide open.” 

Lynn had experienced the challenges of finding quality childcare herself when she returned to full-time research after her daughter was born. 

 “After almost a year of searching, I’d found a place for my infant daughter in a childcare centre on the other side of the university,” she explains.  

“There were a lot of times when the creche would call me and say, ‘She misses you so much. Can’t you come over? Can’t you work less?’ And it just broke my heart.” 

Among the many advocacy activities Lynn initiated was a staff survey at WEHI in 2012 that found strong support for onsite childcare, revealing that 180 children would soon need care. A business plan was developed and presented to the Board. 

“There were some very strong champions on the Board,” Lynn says, “but it was John Dyson who said, ‘Look, we’ve been talking about this for a long time. If you get it started, The Dyson Bequest will contribute a million dollars’ and that prompted others to back it financially too.” 

 Additional funding from philanthropy, WEHI and the Victorian Government enabled construction to start. In June 2018, the Professor Lynn Corcoran Early Learning Centre opened its doors, providing 100 places for children aged six months to five years. It was the first childcare centre at a research institute in Australia. 

“Initially, I thought naming it after me was maybe a bit over the top,” Lynn says with a chuckle, “but I have to say, every time I walk by and see colleagues taking their children in and knowing they can walk 50 paces to check-in during the day – it gives me such a lift.” 

In a full-circle moment, the first enrolments at the childcare centre were Tracy Putoczki’s two young sons. 

 “I loved that my boys came to work with me,” Tracy says. “They grew up knowing Mummy’s work. And I think ‘Mummy’s work’ is a really important phrase. It normalises families in the workforce.  

 “When you walk into our institute, the first thing you hear are kids laughing or crying because it’s right at the entrance of WEHI and I think that alone is quite powerful. It makes the juggle that little bit easier, and allows women to see a path forward.” 

 Supporting new pathways for women remains close to John Dyson’s heart and was part of his decision to become an ambassador for AIIW (Australians Investing in Women).  

 “The work of AIIW has been a constant reminder for me of the importance of applying a gender lens to our giving,” John says. 

 “I tend not to talk much about my philanthropy or the causes we support, but sometimes it’s valuable to raise the profile of the role of philanthropy, and I see this ambassadorship as one way to promote the importance of supporting women and children.” 

 The long-term impact of The Dyson Bequest’s million-dollar gift will span generations. Already, the Professor Lynn Corcoran Early Learning Centre is shaping the next generation of researchers, having received a Victorian Early STEM Award in 2020 and the National Little Scientists Early STEM Award in 2022. 

It’s the infinite possibility unlocked by this single gift that stays with John.  

“Many years after the childcare centre opened, I was at a WEHI function in conversation with some staff members,” he recalls.  

“Most of the staff have no idea who I am and when I introduced myself, one of them stopped mid-conversation to hug me and said, ‘You and your family made it so much easier for me to manage the challenges of childcare while having a research career’. It was a pretty special moment.”