Person

Robinson, Brian John (1930 - 2004)

FAA

Born
4 November 1930
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died
22 July 2004
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Radio astronomer

Summary

Brian John Robinson was a pioneer and major contributor to the field of radio astronomy. He spent most of his 33 year career working for the many subdivisions of CSIRO's Radiophysics Division. Brian Robinson was a founding member of the Steering Committee for the Australia Telescope, later becoming the Vice-Chairman and was deeply involved in the telescopes design and construction.

Skip to

Details

After graduating with a Masters Degree from the University of Sydney (MSc), Robinson worked as a Research Officer at CSIRO Physics Laboratory from 1953-54. He was awarded the Rutherford Scholar of the Royal Society in 1954 and moved to the United Kingdom to undertake a PhD at Cambridge University. Upon completion of his doctorate, Robinson went on to hold many prestigious posts including visiting scientist at the Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy in Leiden (1958-61), Director of Research, Australian National Radio Astronomy Observatory (1971-79) and Chairman Inter-Union Commission on Allocation of Frequencies (1976-1994).

Robinson pioneered the technical development of very sensitive receivers (masers and parametric amplifiers) used for the detection of extremely weak radio signals. His other major contribution was the use of emission and absorption microwave spectral lines to explore the galaxy. This was used to detect maser-like radiation by hydroxyl molecules within interstellar space and galactic centre. Towards the end of his Career, Robinson research evolved to take in satellite navigation systems. He has been awarded and honoured many times for his contribution to radio astronomy (see Chronology section).

Chronology

1952
Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc(Hons)), University of Sydney
1953 -
Education - Master of Science (MSc), University of Sydney
1953 - 1954
Career position - Research Officer, CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory
1954 - 1957
Award - Rutherford Scholar of the Royal Society
1958
Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Cambridge University, UK
1958 - 1961
Career position - Visiting Scientist at the Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy, Leiden
1962 - 1965
Career position - Senior Research Scientist in the Radiophysics Laboratory at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation)
1963
Award - Premium of Institution of Electrical Engineers, London
1964 - 2004
Award - Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS)
1965 - 1966
Career position - Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory
1966 - 1982
Career position - Member, National Committee for Radio Science
1966 - 1989
Career position - Member of Committee, Astronomical Society of Australia
1967 - 2004
Award - Fellow, Australian Institute of Physics (FAIP)
1968 - 1970
Career position - Deputy Director, Australian National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Parkes, New South Wales
1968 - 1975
Career position - Senior Principal Research Scientist at the CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory
1971 - 1977
Career position - Member, Editorial Committee, Australian journal of physics
1971 - 1979
Career position - Director of Research, Australian National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Parkes, New South Wales
1972 - 1980
Career position - Chairman, Australian Radio Astronomy Panel
1974
Award - Walter Burfitt Prize, Royal Society of New South Wales
1974 - 2004
Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)
1975
Career position - Founding member of the Steering Committee for the Australia Telescope
1975 - 1980
Career position - Council member of the International Scientific Radio Union
1975 - 1995
Career position - Chief Research Scientist at the CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory
1976 - 1994
Career position - Chairman, Working Group on Protection of Molecular Line Frequencies of the International Astronomical Union
1977 - 1980
Career position - Member, Board of Standards of the Australian Journals of Scientific Research
1977 - 1990
Career position
1980 - 1987
Career position - Head of the Millimeter-Wave Facility, Epping, Victoria
1987 - 1989
Career position - President, Astronomical Society of Australia
1987 - 1995
Career position - Chairman, Inter-Union Commission on Allocation of Frequencies
1995
Life event - Retired

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Journal Articles

Resources

Resource Sections

Rosanne Walker

Created: 25 May 2001, Last modified: 3 March 2020

EOAS ID: biogs/P003786b.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/P003786b.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