Edition: 2024 November (Ballambar - Gariwerd calendar - early summer - season of butterflies)

Publisher: Swinburne University of Technology

• Find People [ Find people born 100 years ago ]
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• Find Publications (offline and online)
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• Find Innovations, inventions and significant cultural objects
• Find major Events and expeditions
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Featured in the edition:

Resources for the History of Australian Science and Innovation

• Browse Archival Resource Indexes A-Z [2024 November edition: total 3,046 entries. 4 new entries, 15 amended entries.]
• Browse Bibliographic Indexes A-Z [2024 November edition: total 26,818 entries. 571 new entries, 1272 amended entries, and 11 duplicates deleted.]
• Latest Annual Bibliography [no. 44 2022/23], published in Historical Records of Australian Science, 2024 - download the pdf for free

Scientists, Organisations, Innovations and featured entries

• Browse Entity Indexes A-Z [2024 November edition: total 9,829 entries. 59 new entries, and over 1130 amended entries.]
• Richards, Aola Mary (1927 - 2021): was an renowned entomologist much of whose research was on the taxonomy of cave crickets (Rhaphidophoridae) of Australia and New Zealand. An expert on these insects (known as wētā), she described five new genera from New Zealand and over 20 species from Australia.
• Balme, Basil Eric (1923 - 2023): was a geologist, widely considered to be one of the leaders of palynology in Australia. Much of his research was on the coal fields. His pioneering study of the Permian miospores of the Collie coalfield in southwestern Australia, published in 1952, was the first study of palynomorphs of any age from Western Australia.
• Fowler, Laura Margaret (1868 - 1952): was the first woman to graduate in medicine from the University of Adelaide. Born into a liberal-minded Baptist family, Fowler was educated in Australia, England and Germany. On graduating she worked for one year as Resident Medical Officer at the Adelaide Children's Hospital.
• Australian Association for Maritime History (1978 - ): was founded in 1978 to promote the study and general appreciation of, and publication about, maritime history in all its aspects. This includes biography, archaeology, maritime industries, and ships. Membership is not restricted to Australia.
• Warren, John Robin (Robin) (1937 - 2024): and Barry Marshall in their laboratories in Perth, Western Australia, were able to isolate spiral, unease producing bacteria in mucosal specimens of patients suffering with gastric and duodenal ulcers. In 2005 Warren and Marshall were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery.
• Fowler, Thomas Walker (1888 - 1942): successfully pioneered a tilt-slab method for the construction of precast concrete farm buildings and houses, patenting his Fowler system of construction in 1926. The system initially involved casting walls on site, on flat horizontal tables, with door and window openings.
• H.M.S. Discovery (1901 - ): was a steam barque built by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company for the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901 - 1904. Funded jointly by the British Government and the Royal Geographical Society, and crewed largely by Royal Navy personnel, the Expedition was commanded by Robert Scott.
• Curtin Medal for Excellence in Medical Research (2003 - ), John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University: The Curtin Medal for Excellence in Medical Research is awarded, usually annually, by the John Curtin School of Medical Research. It recognises outstanding contributions to medical research, either a major discovery or a lifetime's achievement, by an Australian citizen or resident whose work has significant relevance to Australia. The Medal commemorates John Curtin, Prime Minister if Australia from 1941 to 1945.
• David and Valerie Solomon Award (2019 - ), Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering: is presented annually by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, with the first being presented in 2019. It is a mid-career award for a science or technology graduate working in academia or industry who "demonstrates substantial ability to foster research-industry collaboration and knowledge-transfer for the benefit to Australia". The Award was established with a donation from David Solomon and his wife Valerie. David is a foundation Fellow of the Academy and a world-renowned polymer scientist, being the principal inventor of Australia's polymer bank notes.
• Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition (1896): was intended to explore all those parts of Western Australia and the Northern Territory not covered by the 1891 Elder Expedition, mostly parts of the Great Sandy Desert. It was funded by English engineer Albert Frederick Calvert (whose local agent was Alexander Magarey) and under the auspices of the South Australian Branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia.

Introduction:

The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation brings together information from a broad range of sources. It is a register of the people and their communities including the many industries, corporations, research institutions, scientific societies and other organisations that have contributed to Australia's scientific, technological and medical heritage through all time. Importantly, it includes references to related archival materials, museum objects and collections, and a bibliography of historical published literature.

Research, curation and web publication is supported by the Swinburne University of Technology. Web publication is by serial editions with at least four editions per year. Each edition contains new entries and articles as well as corrections and additions to existing entries.

The Encyclopedia acknowledges all Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples of Australia, the traditional custodians of Country. It recognises and supports their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations people of the world. We are incrementally building a gateway to sources documenting Australian First Nations' knowledge: see Theme: Australian First Nations.

We aim to be a 'living archive' and strive to represent all knowledge in an honest and respectful manner.

On 24 November 2022 (5.45pm), the Centre for Transformative Innovation at Swinburne University of Technology hosted an event at the Hawthorn Campus to celebrate the next phase in the life of the Encyclopedia. For more information see Launch 2022

Exhibitions - selected stories explored in more depth

• All exhibitions from 1996 onwards

Other useful resources

• Historical Records of Australian Science, Australian Academy of Science and CSIRO Publishing. The history of science, pure and applied, in Australia, New Zealand and the southwest Pacific.
• Trove , National Library of Australia. Australia’s free online research portal. Trove is a collaboration between the NLA and hundreds of Partner organisations around Australia, including this Encyclopedia.
• History of Australian science, Australian Academy of Science. An introduction to the historical resources of the Academy.
• CSIROpedia, CSIRO and Swinburne University of Technology. Innovation shaping Australia and the world since 1916.
• IsisCB Explore, An open access discovery service from the History of Science Society; built on 50-years of data in the Isis Bibliography of the History of Science.
• Biodiversity Heritage Library improves research methodology by collaboratively making biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community. An advanced subject search of "Australia" is good starting point.

Data Overview

In all, there are well over 2.3 million data elements captured in 44 data tables. The data can be made available in postgresql format and json-ld courtesy of project with the Australian Research Data Commons.

If you would like to explore the network graph of the links between entities, shown below, go to the SVG view of the data for this edition. Hint: use the sliders to locate the graph - it is large. Also, you can use "Find in the Page" to find Entity ID numbers and use the Zoom function to move in and out. For example: A000200 is the node for the Australian Academy of Science.