NCB staff and ADB Editorial Board members, May 2024. Clockwise from left: Emily Gallagher, Sam Furphy, Karen Fox, Melanie Nolan, Carolyn Rasmussen, Stephen Garton, Malcolm Allbrook, Tom Griffiths, Chris Cunneen, Christine Fernon, Stephen Wilks, Bridget Griffen-Foley, Jennifer Higgins, Mark Dunn, Geoff Ginn, Kristyn Harman, Melanie Oppenheimer, Annemarie McLaren, Kate Fullagar, and Catherine Kevin.
The National Centre of Biography acts as a focus for the research and writing of biography in Australia. The NCB publishes the Australian Dictionary of Biography, which is the largest national, co-operative enterprise in the arts and social sciences in Australia. Producing the ADB is a complex process involving salaried staff at the ANU as well as a host of volunteers from throughout Australia, including over 4,500 authors, eleven Working Parties and an Editorial Board of leading historians with an interest in biography.
The NCB has built upon this existing base of supporters to coordinate and lead national research into biography by appointing Biography Visitors, enrolling MA and PhD students, publishing essays on biography and a journal, the Australian Journal of Biography and History, and holding seminars and conferences.
The NCB is led by Professor Melanie Nolan who is also the general editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography and chair of the Editorial Board of ANU Press' Biography Series.