Person

McFadden, Phillip Lyle (1950 - )

AO FAA

Born
1 March 1950
Khartoum, Sudan
Occupation
Geophysicist

Summary

Phillip McFadden FAA was Chief Scientist at Geoscience Australia. He is a geophysicist with special interests in Paleomagnetism, Geomagnetism and Numerical Analysis. He is widely regarded as the world leader in the analysis of geomagnetic reversal sequences and their interpretation. He emigrated to Australia from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1980 to take up appointment as Senior Research Fellow at the Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU. In 1982 he took up appointment as Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) in Canberra. In 12 years he rapidly rose through the ranks to the highest possible level as Chief Research Scientist Grade 2 in 1992, when the BMR changed its name to the Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO). In 1999 he was appointed Chief Scientist of AGSO, which subsequently changed its name to Geoscience Australia. In his role as Chief Scientist, he has served on many government advisory committees. He was awarded the Jubilee Medal of the Geological Society of South Africa in 1977 and was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1991. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) in 1996 and is currently a member of its Council and Executive Committee, serving as Treasurer.

Prepared by Professor Michael McElhinny. July 2006

Details

Chronology

1970
Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc) with First Class Honours in Physics and Mathematics, University of London
1975
Education - Doctor of Philosophy (D. Phil), University of Rhodesia
1975 - 1977
Career position - Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Physics, University of Rhodesia
1977
Award - Jubilee (Gold) Medal, Geological Society of South Africa
1977 - 1980
Career position - Lecturer in Physics, University of Rhodesia
1980
Career position - Reader in Physics, University of Rhodesia
1980
Life event - Migrated to Australia
1981 - 1982
Career position - Senior Research Fellow at the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University in Canberra (nineteen months)
1982 - 1986
Career position - Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Mineral Resources in Canberra
1986 - 1988
Career position - Principal Research Scientist at the Bureau of Mineral Resources
1987 - 1988
Career position - Head Information Technology Branch at the Bureau of Mineral Resources
1988
Career position - Senior Principal Research Scientist at the Bureau of Mineral Resources (six months)
1989 - 1991
Career position - Chief of the Geophysical Observatories and Mapping Division of the Bureau of Mineral Resources
1991 -
Career position - Fellow, American Geophysical Union
1991
Career position - Chief Research Scientist Grade I at the Bureau of Mineral Resources
1992
Career position - Chief Research Scientist Grade 2, Australian Geological Research Organisation (formerly the Bureau of Mineral Resources)
1994 - 1996
Career position - Chair, National Committee for Earth Sciences, Australian Academy of Science
1996 -
Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)
1999 - 2007
Career position - Chief Scientist with the Australian Geological Research Organisation
1999 - 2008
Career position - Representative for Geoscience Australia, Federal Government Committee on Co-ordination of Science and Technology
2001
Award - Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and science in geomagnetism and palaeomagnetism
2001 - 2004
Career position - Member, National Stores Advisory Committee
2002 - 2006
Career position - Chair, National Committee for Earth Sciences, Australian Academy of Science
2003
Career position - National Academies Forum Representative, National Research Infrastructure Review Committee
2004 - 2009
Career position - Member, National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy
2005 - 2008
Career position - Treasurer and member of Executive Committee, Australian Academy of Science
2005 - 2008
Career position - Member, Antarctic Science Advisory Committee
2007
Life event - Retired
2017
Award - Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to earth sciences as a geophysicist, through leadership of Australia's peak geoscience body and innovation in research, and to professional societies

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Journal Articles

  • McFadden, Phil, 'Roy Woodall 1930 - 2021', Historical Records of Australian Science, 34 (2) (2023), 136-43. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR23002. Details
  • Moloney, T., 'Agrometeorology's Leading Lady', Weather News, 304 (August 1993) (1993), 20-21. Details

Resources

Helen Morgan

EOAS ID: biogs/P003226b.htm

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
What do we mean by this?

Published by Swinburne University of Technology.
This Edition: 2024 November (Ballambar - Gariwerd calendar - early summer - season of butterflies)
Reference: http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/calendars/gariwerd.shtml#ballambar
For earlier editions see the Internet Archive at: https://web.archive.org/web/*/www.eoas.info

The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation uses the Online Heritage Resource Manager (OHRM), a relational data curation and web publication system developed by the eScholarship Research Centre and its predecessors at the University of Melbourne 1999-2020. The OHRM has been maintained by Gavan McCarthy since 2020.

Cite this page: https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P003226b.htm

"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260