In 1992, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians became involved in a project initiated several years earlier by the Royal College of Physicians of London, by which video histories (audiovisual records) were prepared depicting selected Fellows of the College. In March 1992, Dr Brian Gandevia, the Honorary Librarian of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, contacted me to say that Dr Max Blythe, of Oxford Brookes University, who had carried out the interviews for the London College, was coming to Sydney with his cameraman, and he wanted me (as a Fellow of both Colleges) to come down to Sydney for an interview. Another visit to Sydney was planned for September 1993.

Having seen the results of these interviews, in which those interviewed talked about their early lives, the development of their interest in science, their research work and other aspects of their careers, I thought that it would be a good idea if the Academy of Science should become involved and a small committee, of which I was Chairman, was set up by the Council. I suggested that the Academy should arrange for Blythe to come to Canberra to interview Fellows whenever he came out to Australia. In February 1994, Blythe and his cameraman interviewed several Fellows of the College in Sydney, of whom three were also Fellows of the Academy. They then came up to Canberra and interviewed nine more Fellows, all biological scientists, since this was Blythe's background. This occurred on several occasions. Subsequently, a number of Fellows acted as interviewers and local firms undertook the recordings. In March 2001, Council of the Academy resolved, over time, to make such recordings of as many Fellows as possible. In addition, with outside funding, 15 female scientists who were not Fellows and another 20 early-career scientists, including nine women, were interviewed in 2001 and 2002. Edited transcripts of the interviews, together with accompanying teachers' notes, are progressively added to the Academy's website. The total number of visitors to these entries in 2003–04 was 167,921, an increase on the previous year's total of 121,429.