Bertram Dillon Steele FRS[1] (30 May 1870 – 12 April 1934) was an Australian scientist, foundation professor of chemistry at the University of Queensland .

Steele migrated to Australia in 1889, where he qualified as a pharmaceutical chemist at the Victorian College of Pharmacy where he won a gold medal in 1890.

In 1899 Steele was appointed acting-professor of chemistry at the University of Adelaide, married Amy Woodhead of Melbourne, and at the end of that year went to Europe with an 1851 scholarship.

Returning to London he did research work with Sir William Ramsay, and then went to Canada and became a senior demonstrator in chemistry at McGill University, Montreal.

While in this position Steele, working in conjunction with Kerr Grant (who later became professor of physics at the University of Adelaide), constructed a micro-balance that was sensitive to 4 nanograms.

As a result of their work the remarkable researches of Dr Whytlaw Gray and Sir William Ramsay on the direct estimation of the density of the Radium emanation was made possible.

On leaving England at the end of the war Steele received letters of thanks from Mr Winston Churchill and Lord Moulton for the great services he had rendered.

Steele was a man of medium height with a frank and open countenance, with an unselfish outlook on life, and a personality that attracted both his students and his associate workers.