Watt, Robert Dickie (1881 - 1965)

Summary

Robert Watt was widely influential in agricultural and broader scientific matters in Australia in the first half of the 20th-century. In 1910 he was appointed the inaugural Professor of Agriculture at the University of Sydney. Over the next 35 years he built the considerable reputation of the faculty in teaching and research. In this he was ably assisted by Walter Waterhouse, appointed as lecturer in 1921 and successor to Watt as Professor. Watt was a Member of the Australian National Research Council for 35 years and of the New South Wales Committee of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research from 1926 to 1941. Organisations of which he served as President included the Royal Society of New South Wales and the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science. In retirement Watt researched Australian agricultural history and published The romance of the Australian land industries (1955).

Details

Chronology

1903

Education - Master of Arts (MA), University of Glasgow, Scotland

1905

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Glasgow, Scotland

1905 - 1907

Award - Carnegie Research Scholarship, Rothamsted Experiment Station, United Kingdom

1908

Career position - Chief Chemist, Transvaal Department of Agriculture

1910 - 1946

Career position - Foundation Professor of Agriculture, University of Sydney

1914

Career position - Local Secretary for Sydney, Section M (Agriculture), British Association for the Advancement of Science Meeting

1915 - 1946

Career position - Trustee, Public Library of New South Wales

1916 - 1919

Career position - Member, Advisory Council of Science and Industry

1919 - 1954

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Agriculture), Australian National Research Council

1920 - 1926

Career position - Member, Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry

1920 - 1946

Career position - Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Sydney

1922

Career position - Chair, Murray Lands Advisory Committee, New South Wales

1924

Career position - President, Section K (Agriculture and Forestry), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1925

Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales

1926 - 1941

Career position - Chair, New South Wales State Committee, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

1934 - 1935

Career position - Fellow of the Senate, University of Sydney

1935

Career position - President, New South Wales Branch, Australian Institute of Agricultural Science

1935 - 1965

Award - Life Member, Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales

1937 -

Career event - Fellow, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)

1939 - 1940

Career position - President, Australian Institute of Agricultural Science

1946

Life event - Retired

1950

Award - Farrer Memorial Medal, Farrer Memorial Trust

1960

Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt)

1960 - 1965

Award - Fellow, Australian Institute of Agricultural Science

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Robert Dickie Watt - Records, 1910 - 1965, MS 046; 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

• Currie, George; Graham, John, The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901-1926 (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1966), 203 pp, https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/origins-csiro. pages 52, 53 (photograph), 54, 58-59, 142, 145, 152. Details
• Robert D. Watt, The romance of the Australian land industries (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1955), 271 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Campbell, Keith O., 'Watt, Sir Robert Dickie (1881-1965), agricultural scientist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 410-411. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120457b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Watt, R. D., 'The Influence of Science on the Progress of the Land Industries in Australia.', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, 60 (1926), 14037. Details

Reports

• Advisory Council of Science and Industry, Report of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Advisory Council of Science and Industry: for the year ended 30th June 1918 (Melbourne: Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1918), 64 pp. http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2004795988. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21538196. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/93209132. Details
• 'Watt, R D (1881-1965)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-559887. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Watt, Robert Dickie - Ms 46', in Listing of Adolph Basser Library holdings, Australian Academy of Science, 1994, http://www.science.org.au/basser/manuscript-collection/ms046.html. Details

See also

• Copeland, Les, 'A century of agriculture in the University of Sydney', Agricultural science, 31 (2) (2020), 59-65. Details
• McIntosh, R. A.; and Smith-White, S., 'Irvine Armstrong Watson 1914-1986', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (4) (1989), 405-415. Details
• 'Watt, Robert Dickie (1881 - 1965)', Farrer Memorial Trust Medal recipients and orations, New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Sydney, 2023, https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/596208/farrer_oration_1950_prof_rd_watt.pdf. https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/about-us/who-we-are/interacting_2/farrer-memorial-trust/farrer-memorial-trust-medal-recipients-and-orations. Details