Stephen Wurm

In recognition of Wurm's outstanding contribution, the Stephen Wurm Graduate Prize for Pacific Linguistic Studies was inaugurated in 2008.

At the Australian National University, he was Professor of Linguistics from 1968 to 1987. He was elected fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 1976.

In 1954, the Wurms moved to Australia, where Capell had organised for Wurm a post in the Anthropology Department at the University of Sydney. In 1957, the Wurms moved to Canberra, where Stephen took up a post as Senior Fellow within the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS, now Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs) at the new Australian National University (ANU). The same year, the Wurms received Australian citizenship. From then on, the main focus of Wurm's research was the study of the languages of New Guinea, but he also carried out research on a number of Australian Aboriginal languages.

In 1946, he married fellow student Helen Groger-Wurm, a specialist in African ethnography. He taught Altaic linguistics at the University of Vienna until 1951.

Wurm grew up stateless, unable to take the nationality of either of his parent or of his country of residence, Austria. That enabled him to avoid military service and attend university. He studied Turkic languages at the Oriental Institute in Vienna, receiving his doctorate in linguistics and social anthropology in 1944 for a dissertation on Uzbek.

Stephen Adolphe Wurm (Hungarian: Wurm István Adolf, pronounced [ˈvurm ˈiʃtvaːn ˈɒdolf]; 19 August 1922 – 24 October 2001) was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist.