Gottlieb, Kurt (1910 - 1995)

Summary

Curt Gottlieb qualified as a mechanical engineer in Czechoslovakia, working there until he fled to Italy at the start of WWII. He was on the last boat to leave Genoa for Australia before Italy entered the War. Finding his qualifications were not recognised in Australia, Gottlieb trained as a draftsman. He was one of the refugees who joined the technical staff of the Commonwealth Solar Observatory at Mount Stromlo near Canberra, after the Director, Richard Woolley, requested assistance from the Australian Government to address a staff shortage. Gottlieb remained at the Observatory until he retired in 1976. During the War he was involved in optical munitions work, designing more than eleven different instruments including several for the Army Inventions Directorate. After the end of the War he was research engineer in charge of the Observatory's workshops. Major projects in which he was involved included the reconstruction of the Great Melbourne Telescope when it was rescued from oblivion after the Melbourne Observatory closed in 1945. This telescope was used for over 20 years and made headlines when used in the search for dark matter. With colleague Clabon Allen, Gottlieb invented an electron multiplier photometer with a slitless spectrograph which was attached to 30.4-inch Reynolds telescope in August 1947. He took the first photograph of the Russian satellite Sputnik. In 1957, when the Australian National University assumed responsibility for the Observatory, he was appointed Research Fellow at the Research School of Physical Science. Gottlieb was active in the Jewish community in the Australian Capital Territory, serving as President from 1962 to 1964.

Details

Chronology

April 1940

Life event - Arrived in Australia

c. 1941 -

Career event - Appointed to technical staff, Commonwealth Solar Observatory

1957 - 1976

Career position - Research Fellow, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University

1962 - 1964

Career position - President, Australian Capita Territory Jewish Community

1976

Life event - Retired from Mount Stromlo Observatory

Related entries

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• The Giant's Eye: the Optical Munitions Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/omp/omp.htm. Details

Book Sections

• Bhathal, R., 'Gottlieb, Kurt (1910-1995), engineer, draftsman, astronomer and Jewish community leader' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 19: 1991 - 1995 A-Z, Melanie Nolan, ed. (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2021), pp. 321-322, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gottliebkurt-18054. Details

Newspaper Articles

• Doobov, Mervyn, and S.C. Gascoigne, 'Refugee engineer had precision in his sights', The Australian (1995), 13. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q64826189. Details
• 'Gottlieb, Kurt (19101005-19950721)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1472356. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Gottlieb, Kurt', in The Giant's Eye: the Optical Munitions Exhibition, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/omp/people/gottlieb.htm. Details