Thornton, Barry Stephen (1930 - 2021)

Summary

Barry Thornton was one of Australia's computer pioneers, and worked on one of the first commercial computers in installed in Australia. He had a remarkable facility for applying new knowledge across disciplines, adapting insights from his radar research to advance infrared mammogram techniques. During his time with Remington Rand Australia and Honeywell Australia he undertook research and consulting work with the US Air Force, applying his computer methods to the design of wideband radar absorbers on the Stealth aircraft project. Using the principles from this work, he designed fail-safe multifunction airborne computer control systems and jet engine compression innovations. The Foundation for Australian Resources was established by Thornton in 1974 in response to the scarcity of research funding. He oversaw research on water pollution in mining, landmine mapping, solar energy planning, and breast cancer imaging. He was a early advocate of telemedicine and the use of digital technology in healthcare. Later research in biomedical engineering related to the dielectric structure of living cells as they transform from normal to tumorous. In 1973 Thornton became Foundation Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Sciences at the New South Wales Institute of Technology (later University of Technology Sydney).

Details

Chronology

1952 - 1957

Career position - Research Officer, CSIRO

1957 - 1961

Career position - Senior Lecturer, Applied Mathematics and Computing, University of New South Wales

1958

Career position - Visiting Scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1961 - 1963

Career position - Director, Remington Rand Australia's UNIVAC Division

1963 - 1973

Career position - Director, Technical Operations, Australia Honeywell Information Systems

1973 - 1977

Career position - Foundation Dean, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, New South Wales Institute of Technology

1974

Career position - Chief Executive, Foundation for Australian Resources

1975 - 1988

Career position - Head, School of Mathematical Sciences, New South Wales Institute of Technology

1982 - 1987

Career position - Dean, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, New South Wales Institute of Technology

1988 - 1990

Career position - Head, School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney

1992 - 1995

Career position - Chairman of the Board, Gartner Group Pacific

1994 - 2021

Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE)

1995 -

Career position - Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics and Computing, University of Technology Sydney

1997

Award - DUniv (honoris causa), University of Technology Sydney

1997

Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to education in the field of applied mathematics and computer science and in the promotion of research through the Foundation for Australian Resources

1998

Award - Silver Medal, Royal Aeronautical Society

2000 -

Award - Honorary Professor of Physics, University of Sydney

1 Jan 2001

Award - Centenary Medal - for service to Australian society in information technology

2009

Award - Inducted into the Hall of Fame, Pearcey Foundation

Related entries

Published resources

Journal Articles

• Anon, 'Professor Barry Stephen Thornton AM FTSE', Impact: magazine of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, 213 (2022), 64, https://www.atse.org.au/what-we-do/impact-magazine/impact-213/. Details
• Thornton-Benko, Elysia; Moon, Tony; and Faulkner, Ian, 'Barry S. Thornton 1930 to 2021', Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society, 49 (3) (2022), 120-1. Details

Newspaper Articles

• Thornton-Benko, Elysia, 'Scientist made Stealth aircraft invisible and cancer cells visible: Barry Stephen Thornton: 1930 - 2021', Sydney Morning Herald (2022), https://www.smh.com.au/national/scientist-made-stealth-aircraft-invisible-and-cancer-cells-visible-20220207-p59uev.html. Details