Rees, Albert Lloyd George (1916 - 1989)

Summary

Albert Rees was Head of the Chemical Physics Section, CSIR/O, Division of Industrial Chemistry 1944-1958 and Chief of the Division of Chemical Physics 1958-1978. He initiated research in electron microscopy, electron diffraction, optical spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, mass spectroscopy, solid-state physics (including studies of luminescence and fluorescence) and theoretical chemistry. He also contributed to the development of the Australian scientific instrument industry.

His leadership in the science of chemical physics was recognised when he was awarded the Leighton Memorial Medal by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute in 1971, appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1977, and awarded the Ian Wark Medal and Lecture, by the Australian Academy of Science in 1987.

Details

Chronology

1936

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Melbourne

1938

Education - Master of Science (MSc), University of Melbourne

1939

Career position - Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, University of Western Australia

1940

Career position - Beit Scientific Research Fellow and part-time lecturer in Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London

1940 - 1944

Career position - Gas Identification Officer for the Cities of Westminster and Wandsworth, UK

1941

Education - Diploma of Imperial College, Imperial College of Science and Technology

1941

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Imperial College of Science and Technology

1941 - 1944

Career position - Research Chemist with Philips Electrical Industries, UK

1944 - 1958

Career position - Head of the Chemical Physics Section, CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) / CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Division of Industrial Chemistry

1945

Award - Rennie Memorial Medal, Australian Chemical Institute

1948

Education - Doctor of Science (DSc), University of Melbourne

1948 - 1953

Career position - Fellow, Australian Chemical Institute

1951

Award - H.G. Smith Memorial Medal, Royal Australian Chemical Institute

1951 - 1989

Award - Fellow, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (FANZAAS)

1952

Award - Archibald Liversidge Medal and Lecture, Royal Society of New South Wales

1953 - 1989

Award - Fellow, Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI)

1954 - 1958

Career position - Assistant Chief, CSIRO Division of Industrial Chemistry

1954 - 1989

Award - Foundation Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)

1956 - 1965

Career position - Chairman, National Committee for Pure and Applied Chemistry, Australian Academy of Science

1957 - 1958

Career position - President, Victorian Branch, Royal Australian Chemical Institute

1958 - 1978

Career position - Chief of the CSIRO Division of Chemical Physics

1961 - 1970

Career position - Chairman of CSIRO Chemical Research Laboratories

1963

Career position - President, Section B (Chemistry), Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science

1964 - 1968

Career position - Secretary, Physical Sciences, Australian Academy of Science

1964 - 1973

Career position - Chairman, International Relations Committee, Australian Academy of Science

1967 - 1968

Career position - President, Royal Australian Chemical Institute

1969 - 1971

Career position - President, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

1971

Award - Leighton Memorial Medal, Royal Australian Chemical Institute

1978

Award - Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) - Science of chemical physics

1979 - 1980

Career position - Chairman, Independent External Review of Defence Science and Technology Organisation

1981 - 1989

Career position - Fellow of the Faculty of Science, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria

1987

Award - Ian Wark Medal and Lecture, Australian Academy of Science

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Albert Lloyd George Rees - Records, 1951 - 1979, MS 109; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Smith, Ailie, Adolph Basser Library Manuscript Collection, eScholarship Research Centre, 2012, http://www.eoas.info/basser_browse.html. Details

Books

• Beale, Bob, Engineering a Legacy: Memories of the journey of CSIRO Chemical Engineering (Clayton, Victoria: CSIRO Minerals, 2005), 124 pp. pages 12, 14, 16, 18, 22-23, 32. Details
• Buchanan, Rod; McCarthy, Gavan; Scillio, Mark; O'Sullivan, Lisa, A Guide to the Records of Albert Lloyd George Rees (Melbourne: Australian Science Archives Project, 1993), 142 pp. Details
• Rees, A.L.G., Science in Bondage: the Inaugural Ian William Wark Lecture, 30 November 1987 (Canberra: Australian Academy of Science, 1987), 16 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Bartels, Ditta, 'Speech by Ditta Bartels at launch of the Guide to the Records of Albert Lloyd George Rees', History of Australian Science Newsletter, 32 (1994). http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/hasn/no32/feats32.htm#rees. Details
• Rees, A. L. G., 'Ian William Wark 1899-1985', Historical Records of Australian Science, 6 (4) (1987), 533-548. https://doi.org/10.1071HR9870640533. Details
• Walsh, A.; and Willis, J. B., 'Albert Lloyd George Rees 1916-1989', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (1) (1992), 31-47. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9920910031. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q28059431. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/94393987. Details
• Buchanan, Rod; Gavan McCarthy; Mark Scillio: with Lisa O'Sullivan, Albert Lloyd George Rees Guide to Records, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 2004, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/guides/rees/rees.htm. Details
• 'Rees, A L G (1916-1989)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-616407. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Rees, Albert Lloyd George', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P000734p.htm. Details
• Ward, C., 'Albert Lloyd George Rees', in CSIROpedia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), 2011, https://csiropedia.csiro.au/Rees-Albert-Lloyd-George. Details

See also

• Hyde, B. G.; and Day, P, 'John Stuart Anderson', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (2) (1992), 127-49. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9920920127. Details
• Wisdom, John, A History of Defence Science in Australia (Melbourne: Defence Science and Technology Organisation, 1995), 267 pp. Details