Ian Dunn was awarded Honorary Life Membership at the Perth Conference in 1996. He has been a member of the executive committee for 23 years and honorary treasurer for 17 of those years. In that same period he has made an extraordinary variety of contributions - He has organised local activities for HERDSA, been closely involved in all aspects of the HERDSA publications, dealt with membership subscriptions and other transactions, was involved in protracted negotiations that led to HERDSA's journal, has convened two annual conferences and contributed substantially to another two, and been largely responsible for the layout and production of HERDSA News.

Ian's policy and practice as Treasurer of a moderatesized society, operating in two countries, have been exemplary. He has argued that the money is there to be spent on anything relevant to HERDSA's objectives but always negotiated to keep membership subscriptions and prices of publications low. His own institution and the UNSW Staff Association have benefited from similar contributions - he has been an innovative teacher in the laboratory classes he supervises for about 1500 first year students of physics each year, introducing many challenging experiments and methods.