Harry Minnett

Minnett, Harry Clive, Assistant Chief of the Division of Radiophysics, CSIRO, distinguished for his contributions to the development of radio and optical telescopes. Minnett has played a leading part in four major projects: the design of the 210-ft. Parkes radio telescope, the refurbishing of the Parkes radio telescope for operation at short centimetre wavelengths, the design of the 150-inch Anglo-Australian optical telescope, and the development of Interscan, a new-generation aircraft landing system. In each of these ventures Minnett has made outstanding innovative contributions, considerably influencing subsequent trends in engineering design. The work for which he is best known internationally is his contributions to the electro-magnetic theory of aerials and waveguides and the invention of the 'hybrid mode' aerial feed which enables large radio telescopes and space-communication aerials to be operated with markedly greater efficiency and polarization purity. In the astronomical field Minnett was the first to detect radiation in the microwave region (1-20 cm wavelength) from beyond the solar system. He was the co-discoverer of the dust layer on the Moon's surface twenty years before its confirmation by the Apollo XI astronauts.

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