Person

Boas, Isaac Herbert (1878 - 1955)

FACI

Born
20 October 1878
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Died
16 October 1955
Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Chemist

Summary

Isaac Boas was Chief of the Division of Forest Products, CSIR 1928-1944. His book "The commercial timbers of Australia : their properties and uses" (1947) is one of his lasting legacies. In his early career, in Western Australia, he pioneered the processes of making paper from Australian hardwoods.

He is commemorated by the University of Melbourne's Boas Memorial Lectures for secondary school students, inaugurated 1961.

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Details

Chronology

1899
Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Adelaide
1901 -
Career position - Lecturer in geology and mineralogy, and demonstrator in physics, University of Adelaide
1904 - 1905
Career position - Lecturer in physics and chemistry, Technical school, Charters Towers, Queensland
1906 - 1919
Career position - Lecturer in chemistry, Perth Technical School, Western Australia [where he researched making paper from Australian hardwoods.]
1914
Education - Master of Science (MSc), University of Western Australia
1917
Career event - Foundation member, Australian Chemical Institute
1919 - 1921
Career position - Officer-in-charge, projected Commonwealth Bureau of Science and Industry
1921
Career event - Published "Wood Waste" Bulletin No.19, Institute of Science and Industry
1921 - 1928
Career position - Chief chemist, Michaelis, Hallenstein and Company, Melbourne
1928 - 1944
Career position - Chief, Forest products division, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
1932
Career event - Elected Member (Chemistry), Australian National Research Council
1944 -
Career position - Board member, New Zealand Forest Products Ltd
1944 -
Career position - Member, Board of Directors, Commonwealth Experimental Building Station
1944
Award - Fellow, Australian Chemical Institute (FACI)
1944
Life event - Retired
1944 - 1945
Career position - Part-time consultant, Forest products division, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
1947
Career event - Published book "The commercial timbers of Australia : their properties and uses"
1951 - 1952
Career position - President, Australian Chemical Institute

Related Corporate Bodies

Related People

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

  • Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details
  • Isaac Herbert Boas - Records, 1899 - 1968, MS 124; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

  • Isaac Herbert Boas - Records, 1900 - 1955; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

Books

  • Boas, Isaac Herbert, The commercial timbers of Australia : their properties and uses (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 1947), 344 pp. Details
  • Bock, Geoff, The End was to Build Well: a Half-century of Australian Government Building Research (North Ryde, New South Wales: CSIRO, Division of Building, Construction and Engineering, 1995). Boas, I. H. pp.9, 176. Details

Book Sections

Journal Articles

  • Campbell, J. G., 'Papermaking and Australia's Scientific Contribution', Printing and Graphic Arts (Melbourne), 48 (October) (1963). Details

Reports

Resources

Resource Sections

See also

Gavan McCarthy; Ken McInnes

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 22 May 2024

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