Walsh, Alan (1916 - 1998)

Summary

Sir Alan Walsh was the originator and developer of the atomic absorption method of chemical analysis, which has been described as 'the most significant advance in chemical analysis' in the twentieth century. Walsh claimed this breakthrough came about when he "managed to stop being stupid long enough to see something that should have been obvious all along". The first spectrometer based on his design was produced in Australia during the mid-1960s by Techtron Pty. Ltd. Atomic absorption provided a quick, easy, accurate and highly sensitive method of determining the concentrations of more than sixty-five of the elements, rendering traditional wet-chemical methods obsolete. The method has found important application world-wide in areas as diverse as medicine, agriculture, mineral exploration, metallurgy, food analysis, biochemistry, the wine industry and environmental control. Alan Walsh was leader of the Spectroscopy Section of the CSIRO Division of Chemical Physics from 1946-1957 and Assistant Chief of the Division from 1958-1976.
Taken in part from http://www.science.org.au/academy/memoirs/walsh2.htm

Details

Chronology

c. 1935 - c. 1937

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Manchester, UK

1938

Career position - Postgraduate studies in the Physics Department, Manchester College of Technology

1939 - 1944

Career position - Investigator in the Physics Section of the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association

1944

Career position - Deputy Chief Chemist, Metal and Produce Recovery Depot, Ministry of Aircraft Production in Durham, UK (secondment)

1944

Education - Master of Science (MScTech), University of Manchester

1945 - 1946

Career position - Chief Spectroscopist, British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association

1947 - 1958

Career position - Leader of Spectroscopy Section of the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) Division of Industrial Chemistry in Fisherman's Bend, Victoria

1958 - 1976

Career position - Chief Research Scientist and Assistant Chief (1962c) of the CSIR / CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Division of Chemical Physics

1958 - 1998

Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)

1960

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

1966

Award - Britannica Australia Science Award

1966 - 1969

Career position - Council member, Australian Academy of Science

1967

Award - Einstein Memorial Lecturer presented to the Australian Institute of Physics

1967 - 1968

Career position - President, Australian Institute of Physics

1968

Award - Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research

1969 -

Career position - Foreign member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Stockholm

1969

Career position - Honorary member, Society of Analytical Chemistry, London

1969 - 1998

Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)

1970

Award - Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa, Monash University in Victoria

1972 -

Career position - Honorary Fellow, Chemical Society of London

1975 -

Career position - Honorary member, Royal Society of New Zealand

1975

Award - James Cook Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

1976

Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt) - Services to science

1976

Award - Torbern Bergman Medal, Swedish Chemical Society

1977 -

Career position - Consultant to Perkin-Elmer Corporation in the USA

1977 -

Career position - Honorary Fellow, Monash University

1980

Award - Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture, Australian Academy of Science

1982

Award - K. L. Sutherland Memorial Medal, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences

1982

Award - Robert Boyle Medal, Royal Society of Chemistry

1982 - 1987

Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences (FTS)

1986

Award - Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa, University of Manchester

1987 - 1998

Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE) [Awarded by AATS 1982]

Related entries

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Exhibition Papers, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/exhib_papers.htm. Details

Books

• McKay, Andrew, Surprise and Enterprise: Fifty Years of Science for Australia (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1976), 48 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Hannaford, Peter, 'Walsh, Alan' in New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Koertge, Noretta, ed., vol. 7 (Detroit : Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008), pp. 228-233 . Details

Journal Articles

• Amos, Max; Hannaford, Peter; Slavin, Walter; Willis, John, '[Alan Walsh Commemorative Issue]', Spectrochimica Acta B, 54 (14) (1999), 1933-2182. Details
• Hannaford, Peter, 'Sir Alan Walsh. 19 December 1916 - 3 August 1998', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 46 (2000), 533-64, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1999.0100. Details
• Hannaford, Peter, 'Alan Walsh 1916-1998', Historical Records of Australian Science, 13 (2) (2000), 179-206. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR0001320179. Details
• Hannaford, Peter, 'Alan Walsh and the atomic absorption story: celebrating 60 years', Australian Physics, 50 (6) (2013), 188-94. 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
• Walsh, Alan, 'The application of atomic absorption spectra to chemical analysis', Spectrochimica acta, 7 (1955), 108-17. Details
• Walsh, Alan, 'Atomic absorption spectroscopy - stagnant or pregnant?', Analytical chemistry, 46 (8) (1974), 698A-708A. Details

Newspaper Articles

• Willis, John, 'Sir Alan Walsh: physicist and inventor', Age (Melbourne) (1998), 22. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6231627. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/42751792. Details
• 'Walsh, Alan (1916-1998)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1473299. Details

Resource Sections

• Spurling, T. H., 'Walsh, Sir Alan (1916 - 1998), physicist and inventor of atomic absorption spectroscopy', in Australian dictionary of biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, Canberra, 2022, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walsh-sir-alan-32130. Details
• Ward, C., 'Sir Alan Walsh', in CSIROpedia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), 2011, https://csiropedia.csiro.au/Walsh-Sir-Alan. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_w.html. Details
• Beale, Bob, Engineering a Legacy: Memories of the journey of CSIRO Chemical Engineering (Clayton, Victoria: CSIRO Minerals, 2005), 124 pp. pages 24, 68. Details
• Bolton, H. C., 'Optical Instruments in Australia in the 1939-45 War: successes and lost opportunities', Australian Physicist (1990). http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/bolton2.htm. Details
• Gold, Ergad; Greener, Rosalie (Ed) ed., Inventive Vics Exhibition (Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Scientific Industry Association, 1985), 58 pp. The Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Details