Spencer Smith-White's research group at the University of Sydney was for many years the foremost laboratory studying the cytology, cytogenetics and cytoevolution of the Australian flora. He pioneered this field with his chromosomal studies on major Australian families, such as the Rutaceae, Myrtaceae, Proteaceae and Epacridaceae. His cytogenetic analyses underpinned his discussions of the origins and distribution of the major elements of the Australian flora.

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This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 22(2), 2011. It was written by Jim Peacock, Bryan Barlow and Roger Carolin.

Australian scientist Shirley Jeffrey was a pioneer in oceanographic research, identifying the then-theoretical chlorophyll c, and was a worldwide leader in the application of pigment methods in quantifying phytoplankton as the foundation of the oceanic food supply. Her research paved the way for the successful application of microalgae in aquaculture around the world. 

Jeffrey earned bachelor's and master's degrees at University of Sydney, majoring in microbiology and biochemistry, followed by a PhD from the King's College London Hospital Medical School. Returning to Sydney, she was hired by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to research chlorophyll c. Following this successful effort, she became a research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 1962 to 1964. She then became affiliated with the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research. After a 1973 sabbatical at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, she returned to CSIRO, where she spent the rest of her career.

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This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 27(1), 2016. It was written by Simon W. Wright, Gustaaf M. Hallegraeff and R. Fauzi C. Mantoura.

Scott Sloan (1954–2019) was a leader of academic engineering in Australia and beyond, as evidenced by his numerous professional accolades and important research achievements, which have had significant impact on his chosen profession of geotechnical engineering. 

Educated in Australia and the United Kingdom, he returned to Australia in 1984 and developed a large and active research group at the University of Newcastle, and tackled a wide range of important problems in civil and mining engineering. These include the development of computational methods to predict the mechanical behaviour of soil and rock masses, and his pioneering methods to predict the collapse states of structures made of, on, and in, earth materials, allowing engineers to design cheaper and safer civil infrastructure around the globe. 

Sloan established long-standing international collaborations and was awarded many honours for his research achievements. He was also a keen and skilful fisherman and a more than competent blues guitar player.

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This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 33(1), 2022. It was written by John. P. Carter, David. M. Potts and Antonio Gens.

Sally Smith (she was never known as Sarah) was a world leader in the study of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbioses between plants and soil fungi that allow a wide range of plants to grow in soils low in nutrients, especially phosphate. Her work has been relevant to both plant ecology and agricultural productivity. 

Sally obtained a tenurable position at the University of Adelaide after many years’ employment on short-term contracts. She rapidly developed a large and active group that researched at scales ranging from advanced microscopy through molecular biology and physiology to plant ecology. 

Sally established long-standing international collaborations and was awarded many honours. She was a keen cook and gardener, and became an avid birdwatcher, travelling the world with her husband Andrew in pursuit of their hobby.

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This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 32(2), 2021. It was written by F. Andrew Smith, Tim Cavagnaro and Sandy Dickson.

Written by Patrick G. Quilty and Maxwell R. Banks.

Introduction

Professor S. Warren Carey (as he preferred to be known) personified a philosophy of synthesis/integration that lies at the heart of large-scale disciplines such as geology and astronomy. This philosophy is complementary to but sometimes seen to be in conflict with the reductionist approach that characterises so much modern science. He was also a strong proponent of the mantra of 'We are blinded by what we think we know; disbelieve if you can'.

Samuel Warren Carey entered this world under slightly unusual circumstances in 1911, near Campbelltown, then a small country centre some 45 km southwest of Sydney. He attended primary school near his birthplace but entered high school at Canterbury, only 8 km from the city. After a record of distinction at high school, he won a scholarship to the University of Sydney.

As a result of perceptive advice, he enrolled at university in geology, in which he achieved outstanding results in his undergraduate studies. He did not, however, restrict himself to scholarly pursuits but participated in and initiated other worthwhile activities. For Honours and MSc, he carried out research on Carboniferous and Permian rocks in northern New South Wales in which he demonstrated initiative, close observation, and logical and creative thought. His research influenced thinking on these rocks for several decades. While at university, he became familiar with the concept of continental drift, a concept that he pursued and expanded through much of the rest of his life.

The research he had carried out fitted him well for the position of geologist in the petroleum industry in Papua New Guinea, in which capacity he produced geological maps and reports that were highly sought after for many years. His work in New Guinea also inspired him to produce an outstanding thesis for his Doctor of Science degree demonstrating his ability to think clearly and widely, and to introduce novel concepts – although he always claimed that he had to omit certain matters because some examiners would have opposed them.

Field work in New Guinea also provided an excellent background for the next stage in his career, a spell in a special commando unit within the Australian Army. He achieved some celebrity status as a result of his work with this unit.

From the Army, he went to Government service as Government Geologist of Tasmania, in which capacity he revitalised the Geological Survey and produced order in the understanding of Tasmanian economic and general geology where little had been seen before.

When the University of Tasmania decided to found a Department of Geology in 1946, Carey became the Foundation Professor and regular courses in geology began in 1947. Professor Carey rapidly developed a reputation as an inspiring teacher, a successful administrator, an outstanding researcher and director of research, an important member of the academic community, and a respected promoter of his subject in the Tasmanian community. He now had the opportunity, possibly a duty, to develop his interest in continental drift and the broad field of the structure of the Earth's surface. He rapidly achieved worldwide recognition for his work in this field, although his ideas were not immediately regarded as orthodox and some still are not. As a result of his work he became convinced that the Earth had expanded and continues to expand. From the expanding Earth he went on to think about the Universe and the Cosmos. Although his views on these latter topics have not been universally accepted, they have challenged orthodoxy and stimulated research.

Even as early as his last year in high school, S.W. Carey stood out among his fellows and he did so through the rest of his life. He was a member, and commonly an active and executive member of many organisations, mainly but not exclusively scientific. Many of these organisations, in Tasmania, in Australia and internationally, recognised his contribution with honours such as Honorary Membership, invitations to Fellowships, and medals. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of his services to science. He died on 20 March 2002, aged 90.

Early days

Samuel Warren Carey was born on 1 November 1911 at Campbelltown in New South Wales, to Tasman George and Hannah Elspeth Carey. He was born at home with his father and a neighbour in attendance, several days after his mother was thrown from a sulky when the horse bolted. The family had built a small stone cottage on a 4 ha farm on the Georges River. His name was chosen by his father to honour his own father. He was the third of six surviving children in a family of nine. As primary school students at Campbelltown, he and his siblings had to walk the five kilometres to school whatever the weather or their state of health. When he was six or seven years of age, the family moved to Campbelltown where his father had a job as typesetter for a local newspaper. Carey attended the prestigious Canterbury High School, where like so many students throughout history, he was strongly influenced by his teachers, especially James (Jerry) Jervis (chemistry) and Frank Gillogley (physics). His enrolment paper of 28 January 1924 lists his mother as shopkeeper on the corner of Queen and George Streets, Hurlstone Park, where the family moved in about 1922. He was a prefect in his final year at school. In the 1928 School Leaving examinations, Carey earned one of the few University Public Exhibitions to the University of Sydney, so he entered the University of Sydney in 1929. He also obtained a Teachers' Training College Scholarship.

It is worth noting that economic depression was beginning to take effect about this time and that, as a small shopkeeper with a family of five, his mother was not likely to be able to afford many luxuries. Carey was attracted to medicine but this was an expensive course. By enrolling in science, he could avoid the more costly option and the teaching scholarship helped with his and the family's finances. Students enrolling in science had to study chemistry, physics and mathematics in the first year of their course, leaving them a choice of one other subject. On the advice of his teacher, Jerry Jervis, he chose geology. And thus are careers determined!

University of Sydney – the undergraduate

Carey was a very good student. He obtained a high distinction in first-year geology (sharing second place in the course with Alan Voisey, both behind Dorothy York), in a class of 83 students, in a department that included Professor L.A. Cotton, Drs W.R. Browne and G.D. Osborne and Mr L.L. Waterhouse among its staff. In the background was Professor T.W. Edgeworth David who had retired in 1924. David had a large and continuing influence on Carey. Throughout Carey's academic career, a large photograph of David held pride of place above Carey's desk and still hangs in the tea room of the School of Earth Sciences in Hobart. Carey proceeded to obtain high distinctions in second- and third-year geology, an honour shared with Voisey, who was also to be a long-serving Professor of Geology in Australia. They graduated together, both with First Class Honours, in 1933. Carey won the Deas Thomson Scholarship for Mineralogy and the Science Research Scholarship. They shared the John Coutts Scholarship for proficiency in science but Carey had to withdraw because of limitations on the number of scholarships that could be held by one student. The friendly competition continued throughout their lives, even extending to comparison of the state of their respective knees as they turned 80 within a few months of each other.

While an undergraduate, Carey became aware of Wegener's concept of continental drift. An English translation of Wegener's book The Origin of Continents and Oceans had been published in 1924, thus making available to a much wider audience his ideas on continental drift. Cotton published a paper in The American Journal of Science in 1924 in which he referred to polar wandering, an aspect of geology with connections to continental drift, and he taught a course, Principles and Problems of Geology, in Geology III in which there was particular emphasis on continental drift which he saw as being 'a logical answer to many Southern Hemisphere problems' (Branagan 1973, p. 30). During Carey's Honours year, Cotton ran a seminar course on the same topic. Further, in 1928, Edgeworth David published, in The Australian Geographer, a short paper on drifting continents. Carey could thus not have been unaware of the concept, which influenced his interpretation of what he saw in New Guinea, was reflected in his doctoral thesis, and underlay much of his academic career. Carey's first paper – on water divining – was published in the Sydney University Science Journal in 1933.

During his Honours year, Carey developed an abscess in his ear and had an operation that he was not expected to survive, but did. This had the consequence that, now partially deaf, he surrendered, with considerable relief, his Sydney Teachers' Training College Scholarship. The operation left him with an ability that he used later to impress indigenous New Guineans. He could exhale cigarette smoke through his deaf ear.

Carey's family was not wealthy and he entered the University as the Great Depression deepened. This not only affected his career choice but, in addition, he had to augment his scholarship income with extracurricular activities to supplement the family income. This was achieved by a variety of tasks including stints as a milkman, iceman, conjurer in Saturday afternoon children's entertainment and night clubs, and coach to high school students in science subjects and even Latin. During his Second Year geology excursion, he participated in an evening concert: as Voisey notes, 'Another outstanding turn was a conjuring and memory session by the Great Mystic S. Warren Carey which left everyone dazed, incredulous and academically scared'. Because of the costs of travel for his Honours work, Carey even took on the task of 'cattle drover' on trains to his Honours area, Currabubula in northern NSW. He amazed local residents with his energy in pursuing his mapping project. He acted as a guide through Jenolan Caves. His extracurricular activities as an undergraduate and Honours student give evidence of self-reliance, creativity and a very well-trained memory. Because he couldn't afford the bus fare, he walked from Blackheath to Jenolan Caves for one excursion.

He was influenced in the choice of his honours project by W.R. Browne, and his honours mapping was followed up by geological mapping, supported by scholarships, in the Werris Creek area for the Master's degree. The particular contributions to geological knowledge he made during his Honours and Master's work were in Carboniferous and Permian stratigraphy and structural geology of the region, and earned him an MSc (1934). He published four papers on this work. The work was also the basis for a paper with W.R. Browne in which the Carboniferous stratigraphy, tectonics and palaeogeography of New South Wales and Queensland were discussed, and a paper with G.D. Osborne on stress analysis. All these papers had long-term influence on later studies and reveal his developing interests and the influence of Cotton, Browne and Osborne particularly.

His interests were not only academic. Since his school days, he had been active in outdoor pursuits such as scouting. Thus he was a member of the Sydney University Regiment and joined the University Rover Crew, and his memory training may be attributed in part to a Scout activity called 'Kim's Game'. The disciplined outdoor activities in the Rovers and the University Regiment were expressions of interests and attitudes that would influence later decisions and approaches, and the lifestyle choices that followed. Later, as Professor and Head of Department, his memory was a major advantage, a source of amazement and sometimes frustration to staff and students. He founded the Students' Geological Society at the University of Sydney and was its initial president. It was in this capacity that he first met Professor David – in Michaelmas term, 1931 – to invite him to deliver the first address to the Society. David had been a dominating figure in Australian geology for several decades and became a major influence on Carey.

Carey retained a strong interest in his alma mater throughout his life, giving the keynote address at the first of the annual Edgeworth David Days in 1988. From a more immediate point of view, his Honours and Master's studies were excellent experiences on which to base the next stage in his career, that of petroleum geologist in New Guinea.

And so to work – Papua New Guinea

Following the successful completion of his Master's studies, Carey planned to proceed to Cambridge to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy degree, possibly with an academic career in mind. He had applied for an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship, but in the year he applied, it was given to a competitor who would not be eligible in later years. Carey was told he had an excellent chance for the following year and so, sustained with a New South Wales Government Research Scholarship, late in 1933 he was actively collecting further material in the Werris Creek region, south of Tamworth, to take to Cambridge.

At this point, opportunism intervened and changed the direction of Carey's career, changing his future path from one that could have been mundane (unlikely with his personality) to the dynamic one that eventuated.

Oil Search Ltd needed more geologists in Papua New Guinea and, in the person of G.A.V. Stanley, came to Sydney recruiting, especially for someone with experience in stratigraphy and structural geology. Stanley himself was a highly regarded University of Sydney graduate, having obtained the Undergraduate Scholarship for Proficiency in 1923, and the Science Research Scholarship in 1925/26. Voisey and Carey were both interviewed but Voisey did not want to work in New Guinea and Carey was persuaded to accept a position after convincing Stanley that he was worth an extra £300 over and above the £250 he was offered, because of his

Master's experience in structural geology. This employment continued while the company evolved through Oil Search Ltd (1934-36), Papua Oil Search (1936-38) and Australasian Petroleum Company (1938-42).

Carey had made a choice between field and laboratory based studies and field work won. Two weeks later, he sailed on S.S. Montoro to his destination in Boram, 5 km east of Wewak in northern New Guinea. At the age of 23, he was thrown into the field, in many cases in areas where white men had never been and where the knowledge of the geology was, at best, rudimentary. He spent two years in the Sepik district working on foot, followed by two years in the Gulf region of central southern Papua where field work could be done by boat. During this time, he became fluent in both Pidgin and Police Motu.

Work in these conditions, where self-sufficiency for long periods in the field was absolutely necessary, brought out in Carey the attention to detail that was to mark the rest of his career. He was the sole white man supervising a field party of about 30 'boys', often including members of tribes who regularly were at war. Adaptability and flexibility were tested regularly, as was his ability to use his initiative to deal with natives who had not seen white men before, who had a deeply entrenched tribal approach with deep suspicion of neighbouring tribes, and among whom war and lack of western-style respect for human life were the norm. Much of the food supply had to be obtained locally and this involved learning the New Guinea values and trade system, and avoiding being 'taken for a ride'. He also needed to be field leader, surveyor, doctor, diplomat, trader, recorder of detail, and maintenance man for the equipment. Some examples to illustrate!

In many instances there were no base maps so theodolite, staff and plane tabling were the main survey systems. In the high humidity, the glass in the eyepiece of a theodolite telescope is subject to fungal growth, especially where etched with vertical and horizontal cross-hairs. The diaphragm with cross-hairs was thus replaced with glass bearing spider-web cross-hairs that lasted longer than the etched variety. He collected spider-web thread on a card with a slot in it, after a lengthy process of getting 'his boys' to collect the right type of spiders and choosing the individual spider that produced the best single thread (hence the personal word 'spidering'). Applying the spider web to the eyepiece often had to be done several times to get the spacing absolutely correct. He also preferred to make his own bamboo staffs because they floated if dropped in water and were light, cheap and easily replaced. Plotting the day's results was done after dinner by the light of a Tilley lamp. The advent of aerial reconnaissance flights late in 1937 allowed sketching of topography and other features from the air. Aerial photography then speeded up the mapping considerably.

Carey had many medical experiences including regular stitching of surface and deeper wounds. He also treated yaws and sexually transmitted diseases, malaria, pneumonia, diverse parasites, some measles, typhoid, deaths. All to be cared for by a non-medically-qualified geologist in his early 20s! His principal guidance came from a ship's captain's medical book and from the company doctor. His background in Scouts, Rovers and the Sydney University Regiment had given him some relevant experience. While taking so much care for others, he contracted tropical typhus and survived on beef tea until strong enough to walk out of the base camp.

He carried a few bags of rice, blue peas (soak overnight and carry damp in hessian bags during the next day so they sprout and produce vitamin C, to prevent scurvy) and some canned bully beef in case all else

failed. He made bread regularly but had to keep the yeast alive. Meat was what could be shot. Self-discipline was highly developed to prevent him developing any tropical diseases and camp routine was strict, including a daily bath, sick parade, and administration of 'bush justice'. He learned to identify key fossils in the field and developed his own means of polishing rock slabs to examine with hand lens the fossil foraminifera therein, using the field guide prepared for the purpose by Professor Martin F. Glaessner, also an employee of the Australasian Petroleum Company, who eventually also became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (McGowran 1994). This skill stayed with him through later years. In the first two years, there was no radio and mail commonly was two months old by the time he received it.

Carey made great contributions to the understanding of the geography and geology of Papua New Guinea and the country, in turn, left a very strong mark on him because, in contrast to the age and stability of the areas in which he had worked in his earlier research, it is geologically young and one of the most active places on Earth. It is a land of growing mountains, active volcanoes (and many others that have been active very recently), earthquakes, and vigorous erosion and sedimentation regimes. He experienced first-hand the natural violence of the local environment. He was very close to the epicentre of the Torricelli Earthquake of 20 September 1935. This was the then most violent earthquake recorded in Papua New Guinea and caused the seismograph recorder at Riverview Observatory in Sydney (3,500 km away) to go off-page and to react violently for many hours. His records of the earthquake illustrate again his attention to detail in that he recorded the frequency of various types of vibration, the effects on local material (suggesting acceleration greater than g), and the different types of vibration. There were major landslides and it took months for the shocks to die down and the effects to become fully evident.

His experience and observations of landslides and mudslides were to stand him in good stead in teaching about past environments when he eventually assumed a professorship. His few papers on the area are regarded as landmark works, but most of his work was recorded in company reports. He made predictions that took many years to be proven correct, and the knowledge base he left in company reports and papers has been an important element in the successful search for hydrocarbons in the area. His interests in tectonics were enhanced extremely and he never lost his interest in this part of the world.

A thesis finalised

At the end of four years, Carey took six months' leave in 1938, returned to Sydney, and completed and submitted a thesis for the Doctor of Science degree, based on his work in Papua New Guinea. It was entitled 'Tectonic Evolution of New Guinea and Melanesia'. The examination of the thesis was quite a saga. It was submitted at about the time of the declaration of the Second World War. The examiners included the very prominent overseas geologists Arthur Holmes (who had worked in oil exploration in Burma) and H.A. Brouwer, and in Australia, the Commonwealth Geological Adviser, W.G. Woolnough, another of David's students. Getting the thesis to them in the first instance, by sea mail, was difficult enough, but to complicate the process, Brouwer kept moving around the world, with the thesis following him and catching up with him only when he returned to his home university in the Netherlands. As a result of the long delay, Carey thought he had failed. Eventually the examiners' reports were all in and the degree was awarded in 1939.

He returned to and continued working in Papua New Guinea until 1942, when World War II intervened in his career. This led to another phase that was to produce its own fame, depending on those same personality traits of adventurous spirit, lateral thinking and attention to detail that had characterized his earlier experiences.

Marriage and family

Carey and Austral Robson, a nurse and portraitist, were married in her home town of Kempsey, New South Wales, on 15 June 1940. They had met through the Voisey connection. Austral and their four children (Tegwen Alice, Robyn, Harley and David), seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren survive him.

War in the Southwest Pacific

In 1942, events in south-east Asia indicated clearly that life in Papua New Guinea was about to change. Carey, with his knowledge of conditions there, and with his network of contacts throughout the area, was seen as a valuable resource. He enlisted on 30 June 1942 and was given the rank of Acting Captain on 6 July 1942 (this was confirmed on 6 January 1944). His attention to detail came into its own during Carey's time in the army but his breadth of practical expertise had its drawbacks in gaining credibility with his military superiors in an institution that had it own way of doing things. There must have been a clash of philosophies between Carey and the military, because of Carey's history and belief in self-reliance and the military's call for obedience to a command structure.

The Inter-Allied Services Department (ISD) had been established in March 1942 as an organization for subversion/sabotage behind enemy lines. Perhaps its most famous exploits were Operations Jaywick and Rimau in the Singapore region. The first unit formed in ISD was the Z Special Unit ('secret and unorthodox tasks'), which Carey joined on 1 July 1942. Training for this unit was held at Z Experimental Station a few kilometres inland from Cairns. His secret role was to act as liaison officer between the Commanders-in-Chief New Guinea Force (Lieutenant-General Edmund Herring) and Australian Military Forces (General Sir Thomas Blamey). His more public appointment was as General Staff Intelligence (Topographical), compiling topographical intelligence in Port Moresby, a task for which he was admirably suited (see his paper entitled 'The Morphology of New Guinea' published in 1938; paper No. 7 in his bibliography). This involved collating his own knowledge, transmitting coded messages, dealing with Coastwatchers, and recruiting appropriate candidates for the war effort. In this role he worked in Papua New Guinea through the latter half of 1942.

Carey's best-known role was with Operation Scorpion, his own brainchild. This operation was planned in fine detail to conduct a raid on Rabaul Harbour using folding boats (folboats) launched from a US submarine. The idea was to attack where the Japanese felt most secure. The force would enter the harbour, place limpet mines on enemy shipping, hide in local caves on Vulcan Island until the fuss died down, and escape later. His knowledge of the area was ideal and it was to be conducted only with others who knew the area or had been trained to know it in detail. The concept was treated initially with some scepticism but Carey eventually persuaded Blamey that it was worth an attempt, and Blamey gave Carey a very simple letter stating that what Carey did was with Blamey's approval ('Captain Carey is proceeding to Australia with instructions which I have given him personally. You will assist him in any way you can.'). Training for the ten men of Operation Scorpion began at headquarters in March 1943. Carey's initial task was in 'toughening up' the men to develop a high degree of stamina through an intensive regimen of swimming and running. They also had to develop a full capability in the use of folboats, and of attaching limpet mines quietly.

There were those who believed that Operation Scorpion could not succeed and would not be approved unless the concept could be proven viable. To show that it was, Carey decided that there had to be a test run – on shipping in Townsville Harbour, a harbour protected by a minefield – an appropriate training exercise for people and gear. Thus, at 11 pm on 19 June 1943, the Scorpion team left a train at a river crossing just north of Townsville. The group carried 45 sand-filled limpet mines and dehydrated food for three days. They carried no fuses, and the limpet mines could not be detonated. The river was not tidal as he had been led to believe, and it took some 30 hours to reach Magnetic Island, about 10 km from their destination. At 11 pm on 22 June, the commandos set off. They navigated through the mined Townsville harbour entrance with little trouble. With only a single potential problem, they retired quietly to Townsville at 7 am on 23 June, leaving fifteen ships, including two destroyers, with three limpet mines on each.

Unloading the vessels allowed the mines to become visible. The rumour mill was activated and the word passed to Townsville itself that the Japanese had limpet-mined the ships. Work in the harbour stopped. The military communication system came into play and the message eventually reached the offices of General Douglas MacArthur who was, by this stage, responsible for the ISD, now renamed Allied Intelligence Bureau. One of his officers was immediately suspicious of Carey and asked that he be found. He was, at 3 pm, asleep in the Officers' Club. He was arrested but released on production of Blamey's letter. He went through interviews with successively higher ranks in the Navy and ultimately to drinks on HMAS Arunta, the pride of the fleet. During drinks, it became clear that Arunta's captain was unaware that his ship had been limpet-mined, a situation that was then demonstrated.

The Townsville venture had been more successful than Carey had dreamed; it had shown that his training and forethought had worked. But Operation Scorpion, originally proposed as a raid on Rabaul, was not to be. US forces lost a submarine and Australian troops captured the Huon Peninsula, thus rendering the raid both logistically difficult and unnecessary. The Navy did not pursue any military legal action on condition that he be transferred; thus he did not have the chance to participate in other Z activities. The success of the exercise showed that such daring raids could work and ultimately led to acceptance of the idea that Operation Jaywick, employing Krait might work; it was very successful. Following Jaywick, another Z raid (Rimau) included Carey's brother Walter who was captured and beheaded by the Japanese, in Singapore, on 7 July 1945, one month before the atom bombs were dropped on Japan.

Following the disbandment of Operation Scorpion, Carey moved to Melbourne before returning to Papua New Guinea. He was appointed Director of Research in the Joint Planning, Training, Air and Technical Directorate, established in July 1943 under Major (later Sir) John Holland. He was Mentioned in Dispatches.

Carey qualified as a parachutist on 30 September 1943. He was actively involved in experimental work in parachuting, using the Liberator 'Beautiful Betsy', and retained his interest in parachuting throughout his life. As the war was coming to an end and policy was to take employment if it came available, he took the opportunity and was discharged on 6 November 1944. He remained in the Army Reserve.

His experiences during World War II illustrate well the developing Carey – creative thinking, attention to detail, personal faith in and commitment to what many saw as outrageous proposals, ability to adapt to changing circumstances, and desire to win – pure effrontery.

Tasmanian public servant

After demobilization from the military in 1944, Carey, at this time in Melbourne, accepted appointment as Government Geologist of Tasmania, following the move of the previous incumbent in that office, Dr D.E. Thomas, to Victoria. Carey was one of a group of highly trained, very able people who emerged from the war effort. He was perhaps exceptional in that he had had a period of being a high achiever before the war began and so had a head start over many of the others. Carey began to reorganize the Geological Survey, to investigate and write reports on mineral prospects, mines, groundwater resources and engineering projects, and to make a critical review of the literature and evidence involved in an understanding of the geology of Tasmania. He paid particular attention to the Cenozoic structure and sediments, both areas to which his earlier geological experience of structure and tectonics was relevant. The Palaeozoic was the Era in Tasmania during which most of the mineral resources were formed. As a result of his review, he brought for the first time a semblance of order to the conflicting views of the stratigraphy, structure and mineral potential of the early Palaeozoic rocks (particularly of the Cambrian volcanic rocks which later became known as the Mount Read Volcanics). He also produced for the first time a model relating Tertiary non-marine deposition to Cenozoic rift valley faulting. During his term of office, he arranged for up-to-date geological and mineral maps of the State to be prepared and published. He was not particularly happy at the Survey because the Director of Mines at the time had a policy of not publishing the results of the Survey's work. Carey eventually found a way around this restriction with his publication of the Report of the Government Geologist for 1945, a major advance in knowledge.

Professor of geology

Following the decision by the University of Tasmania to found a Department of Geology, Carey was appointed Foundation Professor and took up duties on 27 October 1946. Over the next six months, he designed courses, started a teaching collection of minerals, rocks and fossils, began to increase the library holdings of text and reference books, to organize office and laboratory space, and to arrange for appointment of a departmental secretary and a demonstrator. The structure of the first-year course was based on his experience at the University of Sydney – lectures, laboratory classes and a number of field excursions. He chose as first-year text Arthur Holmes' book Principles of Physical Geology (which included a chapter on continental drift). Students enrolled in the newly available subject, and teaching of science, engineering and agricultural students began in March 1947. In some of his subsequent lectures and excursions, 'The Prof.' referred graphically to the processes that he had seen in operation in New Guinea and the resulting rocks, when this was relevant to Tasmania. 'The Prof.' was always rather formally dressed, even on excursions, and addressed both staff and students very formally as 'Mr' or 'Miss' (or other appropriate term). Woe betide staff or students who were less formal in their address. This formality was a carry-over from his own school and university days. Close colleagues addressed him as 'Sam' but he always signed himself as 'S. Warren Carey', his chosen style.

Carey was housed for a brief period at the old University of Tasmania building on Hobart's Domain but moved almost immediately to the Second World War vertical-board 'huts' at the current campus, which had been a military rifle range. Teaching began in the old buildings on the new site and this continued until a new building was provided for Geology and Geography and occupied late in 1962. The building was planned in fine detail by Carey working with architects and incorporated his forward-looking perceptions of his subject. Teaching emphasis grew in the emerging disciplines of Geophysics and Geochemistry.

Carey's view was that geology is dynamic and best taught in the lecture room, laboratory classes and the field. The building was designed with high-impact aids. These included a Foucault pendulum in the foyer stairwell, a large terrestrial globe, a seismic recording drum, a mosaic on the foyer floor, specimens of Tasmanian minerals, rocks and fossils, and a growing gallery of photographs of graduates and former staff.

The globe (1.8 m diameter relief model) of the Earth had the geology of the seafloor painted on it incrementally as this became known through the 1960s. This sphere rotated once every three minutes and was designed to be lowered into and float in a water-filled mobile trolley, disconnected and wheeled across the corridor into the first-year lecture theatre for use during lectures. Unfortunately the idea was not totally successful because the sphere leaked when placed in the water. The sphere occupied its own glass-fronted room where it was visible to all, and Carey could work on it employing a specially built curved ladder that allowed him to access any part of the surface. The sphere is still there! Under his initiative, a seismic network was established in Tasmania in 1957, centred on the Geology Department. In the foyer of the new building, the rotating seismic drum continually records and displays Tasmanian seismicity from signals generated at four seismic stations. The Tasmanian Seismic Net was integrated into the World Standard Seismic Network. The floor of the foyer features an Escher 'Knights on Horseback' to demonstrate some elements of crystal symmetry. The specimen displays acted as a reference collection and a teaching aid for courses in Tasmanian geological history. The photographic record (the 'Rogues' Gallery') is of interest to current ('so that's what he/she used to look like') and past students (reminding them of past days, experiences and companions).

From his experience at the Geological Survey of Tasmania, Carey knew that there was a serious need for modern regional geological maps for use by the Survey, by the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission, and by an expanding exploration industry. In a hint of things to come, he invited experienced geologists from all over Australia to come to Tasmania, to apply their particular geological skills, and to help extend knowledge of the geology of the island. Thus Professor R.T. Prider and Dr R.W. Fairbridge came to Tasmania from Western Australia, and Professor A.H. Voisey from Armidale, to map areas of interest to the Hydro-Electric Commission in its dam-building programme (Carey was consultant to the HEC for some years). The maps produced by these geologists were a significant part of the papers published on the areas concerned.

In the late 1940s, North Broken Hill Co. Ltd and some associated companies, interested in the matter by Dr C. Loftus Hills, became involved in an exploration programme in western Tasmania under the guidance of Dr M.D. Garretty. One result of this programme was the preparation of a photogeological map of the Zeehan area by Carey, using the skills he had acquired in New Guinea. As part of this exploration, Mr E. Gill was invited to Tasmania to examine the stratigraphy and palaeontology of the Siluro-Devonian rocks. Soon after the Geology Department started, Carey taught a course in air-photo interpretation to a group of professional geologists from Tasmania and other states. To assist further with production of regional geological maps, Carey developed a co-ordinated programme in which Honours and Master's students and staff produced geological maps of one or two 10,000 yard (9.144 km) squares at a published scale of one inch to the mile (1:63360). This programme lasted almost fifteen years during which 52 maps representing a total area of more than 4,500 km ² (about 6.6% of the State) were published in colour. Many of the maps were produced by students using air photos and the slotted template method of map compilation. Many of the students were associated to varying degrees with the Geological Survey, the Hydro-Electric Commission or mining companies. The synergy between the Department and other bodies was very fruitful.

Teaching

In his role as teacher, Carey was very effective – he was inspirational. He gave a course on the broader aspects of geology (for example, tectonics) to first-year students throughout his career and courses in the same general area to second- and third-year students. In the early years, he ran all the excursions, but later restricted himself to first-year excursions. The excursions and many of the lectures were run on the 'disbelieve if you can' principle; he actively encouraged students to make close observations, to construct hypotheses consistent with their observations and previous knowledge, and to use multiple working hypotheses to explain what they saw. It was not 'I speak, therefore it is!', rather 'you look; you think; you defend your explanations against your fellow students and me'. At a time when most geology departments could count on a recruitment of 20-30% of first-year students to second year, his department was inspiring up to 60% to advance to higher levels of geological study. A number of graduates from his department, including several who studied geology as a fourth subject in first year (as Carey had done), reached eminence in the profession, in academia, in government service, and in industry. His graduates include several Professors of Geology, several Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He was a highly successful teacher.

In the academic community

His department grew and he steered it very well, but his connection with the academic community did not stop there. He was very assiduous in senior roles in the University – Dean of the Faculty of Science twice, Chairman of the Professorial Board, and President of the Staff Association. He played a significant role in the foundation of a Department of Geography in 1954 (shades of Professor David and Geography in the University of Sydney), and actively supported the introduction of an agricultural science degree in 1962. He was heavily involved in discussions on the planning of the University on the Sandy Bay campus, in the Royal Commission into the University in 1954, and in the Orr case. Although he was not a sympathiser with Orr, he initiated the 'Friends of the Orr family' to help Orr's widow after her husband's death. He was an energetic and respected member of the University community.

Spreading geology in the Tasmanian community

Carey had many roles in his capacity as spreader of knowledge of and about geology in the wider Tasmanian community. He founded the Tasmanian Caverneering Club, based on his experience in Jenolan Caves and in training for Z Force; this was the first such organization in Australia and the first use of the term. He maintained close links with the Australian Paratroopers' Association including active parachuting, and was strongly committed to Hobart Legacy.

He strongly encouraged the teaching of geology in schools, particularly secondary schools, a valuable source of recruitment for University geology. Following his early student membership of the Royal Society of New South Wales, he took an active role in the Royal Society of Tasmania, becoming its Senior Vice-President (the State Governor traditionally accepted the post of President). Subsequently, he was elected as Trustee, and later (1951/52), Chairman of Trustees of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Research on Tasmania

Despite his ascent into the Ivory Tower, Carey remained interested in Tasmanian geology. He published at least eleven papers on this subject arising from work after he became Professor. These ranged from the very local to the regional, and from emphasis on Precambrian rocks to Pleistocene glacial effects, from mineralogy to variation of physical parameters in the subcrust. Some were factual reports, others wide-ranging syntheses. His contribution to the dolerite problem, and to analysis of structures in the Bass Basin, were typical.

Relations with industry

Carey was no armchair academic in an Ivory Tower. He believed that one of geology's important roles was in resource exploration for the nation's economic well-being. As both Government Geologist of Tasmania and Professor at the University of Tasmania, he saw the value of geology in exploration and in application to solving engineering problems in Tasmania. Economic geology was an important subject in his department, and examination of the Department's 'Rogues' Gallery' shows many who went on to successful and often very senior positions in mining and petroleum exploration companies, academia, geological surveys and similar organizations.

A continuing association was with Geopeko at its Tennant Creek mine in the Northern Territory. There is continuing controversy concerning the origin of some of the structures in the rocks there and Carey advised on this issue, eventually hiring staff at the University of Tasmania and having PhD research done on the problem. It was typical of his concept of integrating university and industrial needs for research.

Carey had worked for Oil Search and the Australasian Petroleum Company in Papua New Guinea for petroleum exploration for eight years.  Much of his field work and subsequent structural analysis laid the foundation for the modern success story there. His understanding of geological structures allowed predictions that are only now being proven correct. This interest was further expressed in the large Papua New Guinea project at the University of Tasmania during the 1960s.

Carey's publication record has many papers that are resource-related. What is less well-known is his role in the very successful exploration for hydrocarbons in the Gippsland Basin that has had a major impact on Australia's economy and reduced its dependence on imported oil. Lewis G. Weeks, consultant to BHP, sat in on one of Carey's 1959 lectures while Carey was Visiting Professor at Yale University.  Later, at Weeks' home, Carey sketched the extension of onshore Gippsland Basin anticlines to the offshore. This led, through Weeks, to BHP applying for permits to explore the offshore Gippsland Basin that led, in turn, to discovery of the major hydrocarbon province that is still producing and being explored further.

His main intellectual thrust

From the beginning, Carey taught continental drift. His attraction to the topic was initially because of his acquaintance with

Wegener's early work through lectures by L.A. Cotton at the University of Sydney, and later through the 1930s publications of the British geologist Arthur Holmes. His personal experience consisted of his undergraduate attraction to the topic and subsequent Papua New Guinea experience. What he taught in the early days at the University of Tasmania would now be regarded as plate tectonics. This was a time when fixity of the continents was orthodoxy. In addition to his teaching of the mobility of the continents, his research was related to some of the questions of properties of rocks involved in structural geology and continental movement.

His pioneering studies of the large-scale features of the Earth in the early 1950s led to many new concepts (sphenochasm, rheidity, orocline and many others) that required new expressions. These were defined very carefully, taking into account the best principles of etymology. For example, his concept of subsequently-rotated orogenic belts he originally named geoflex but he later rejected this term when he realised that it was a mixture of Greek and Latin roots; he replaced the word with orocline, purely Latin-based. His view of geoscience was the same. He had strong opinions on the pronunciation of words. One such word was 'kilometre' and he could be heard in presentations by others, correcting them loudly from the audience.

Carey developed an innovative approach to the study of continental drift and past supercontinental reconstruction. He arranged for construction of a hemisphere of Tasmanian endemic Huon Pine, 750 mm in diameter, and developed a system for making plastic overlays for this hemisphere. On these, he laboured long hours making detailed tracings of continents and moving these to past positions using palaeomagnetic data, geology and geography. This led to his detailed rebuttal in Geological Magazine of Sir Harold Jeffreys' 1929 assertion that South America and Africa did not constitute a proper fit of past continents. As he reconstructed past supercontinents, he found that there were gaps in what were probably originally continuous structures using an Earth of current diameter, and he became convinced that the Earth had expanded markedly with time. His demonstrations of the case for continental drift, evolution of rift valley to rift ocean and new seafloor, and the tracing of continental movement by volcanic chains (nemataths which he attributed to 'hotspots') are all legacies of his creative and pioneering research which have now become fully integrated into the plate tectonics model for the convecting, dynamic Earth. This was the integrative science that Carey taught through the 1940s and 1950s and which, when combined with seafloor spreading data, showed continents to be mobile, not fixed, in conflict with earlier dogma. It finally led to the 'plate tectonics' revolution in the mid-1960s. His later advocacy of an expanding Earth has not convinced the majority of his profession but the ability to lead with iconoclastic creativity is the characteristic for which Carey is best remembered.

In the mid-1950s, Carey began to convene a series of symposia on topics on which there was wide divergence of opinion. The first of these was on glacial marine sedimentation held in November 1955. Regrettably, papers presented at that meeting have not been published although, as a result of the meeting, a seminal paper on the topic was published by Carey and N. Ahmad in 1961. This paper, stimulated by the Permo-Carboniferous Gondwana glaciation in Tasmania, is still regarded as a classic.

The most famous, and most influential, of the symposia was the Continental Drift Symposium held in March 1956, attended by prominent overseas experts and published by the University of Tasmania in 1958. It was the time when a vast new body of oceanic data (sea floor bathymetry, earthquake distribution in three dimensions) was becoming available but continental drift was still not generally accepted. Carey assembled a group of leaders in various related fields, believers and non-believers alike, and produced a landmark volume. In the resulting publication, he introduced his belief in Earth expansion. Some see the results of this symposium as the most significant work on continental movement published in the twentieth century. It led to many converts and much follow-up study. Shortly afterwards, seafloor magnetic lineations were recognised, and major international initiatives such as the Deep Sea Drilling Project began with the object of testing some of the concepts. Also at about this time, Plate Tectonics, which explained the observations that Carey had taught in the late 1940s, became orthodox, as it still is.

Late in 1956, a symposium was held in Queenstown, western Tasmania, on the topic 'The Genesis of the Lyell Schists', the host rocks of the Mt Lyell copper ore body. This was not published. A little over six months later, in July 1957, the topic of dolerite was addressed. Dolerite is a very common rock type in Tasmania and, in the Australian context, a characteristically Tasmanian rock. It has been economically important, affecting the search for Tasmanian coal, and is an important determinant of the spectacular Tasmanian scenery. Despite its common occurrence, its mode of intrusion and structure were by no means clear at the time. Further, similar dolerites are prominent in Antarctica and South Africa. At the Dolerite Symposium, many aspects received attention and Carey introduced a novel concept – the isostrat – to help determine and explain its structure, a concept that triggered considerable geological and geophysical study that, in due course, led to the rejection of the isostrat concept. The Symposium stimulated research into the rock which continues today.

The success of the 1956 Continental Drift Symposium led to much international recognition for Carey. His Visiting Professorship at Yale attracted several PhD students who came to Tasmania for his New Guinea project (see below). His reputation as a proponent of his views grew and he received a large number of invitations to attend overseas meetings, to speak and to have his views published. He began to receive many international awards, culminating with the award of its 2000 Career Contribution Award by the Structural Geology and Tectonics Division of the Geological Society of America.

Some of the concepts Carey espoused made him realise again the importance of Papua New Guinea as a source of ideas on earth movement and he obtained funding for a serious study by a group of PhD students. Thus several students worked together in the 1960s studying field geology in critical regions, and also key aspects of the geophysics of the area.

The symposium on Syntaphral Tectonics and Diagenesis, in 1963, addressed the origin of unusual minerals and their textures developed in unconsolidated sand and finer sediments as they move under the influence of gravity and water pressure. An important topic was the key role of colloids and gel/sol in transitions in producing large crystals in sedimentary rocks, and the relationship to ore bodies. The symposium was held both in Hobart and in the field at Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. It generated heated debate following presentation of unorthodox views on the origin of the porphyroblasts in the Tennant Creek rocks, but was consistent with Carey's philosophy of stimulating the debate.

Carey's publications became more concerned with tectonics as time passed, but occasionally he delved into other topics. Near 'retirement' and after, the scale of his thinking expanded and turned more towards the role of Earth and humanity in the universe. A 1988 review of his Theories of the Earth and Universe: a History of Dogma in the Earth Sciences noted that in this book 'Carey was back in comfortable territory: outside of the establishment'.

Scientific societies

Beyond the limits of Tasmania, Carey also was active and held executive roles in many scientific societies. He also promoted membership of such societies to students. He was prominent in the Geological Society of Australia, being a Foundation Member, later President and ultimately was elected to Honorary Membership. The Society struck a medal in his honour, first presented in 1992. He took a close interest in the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS), was Secretary for the 1949 meeting in Hobart, and President of the 1970 Port Moresby Conference (where he gave his presidential address accompanied by a gradually expanding balloon – the Earth – that he punctured at the end of the presentation). He was eventually awarded the ANZAAS Medal and Honorary Life Membership. He was an Honorary Life Member of the Royal Society of New South Wales, and Honorary Foreign Life Member of the Geological Society of America.

On retirement and soon after the establishment of the award, he was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO), reflecting the depth and diversity of his contributions to the Australian community.

In 1979, in company with two US scientists, Carey founded the Expanding Earth Exchange (EEE), a cyberspace network to promote the concept of the expanding Earth and to show that adoption of subduction was an 'unfortunate and regrettable mistake'. This evolved into the Central Expanding Earth Exchange which continued until just before Carey's death.

Relationship with the Australian Academy of Science

Carey's relationship with the Australian Academy of Science was stormy to say the least. The record will show that he accepted Fellowship of the Academy following a telephone call from Sir Rutherford Robertson on 27 April 1989. The Academy of Science, at its April 1989 Annual General Meeting, elected him under the by-law that allowed special election of a limited number of Fellows on the basis that such election honoured someone who 'has rendered conspicuous service to the cause of science, or whose election would be of signal benefit to the Academy and to the advancement of science'. This election brought to conclusion a controversial relationship. Carey responded by letter on 1 May 1989, accepting the honour but also pointing out that he was completely unaware that he was being considered, as he had been equally unaware of the honours bestowed on him by 'the Indian National Science Academy, Geological Society of London, ANZAAS, Geological Society of America, Geological Society of Australia, Royal Society of New South Wales', etc.

The long-running dispute between Carey and the Academy had begun several decades earlier.

Until the institution of the Australian Academy of Science in 1954, representation of Australia in international scientific bodies had been through the Australian National Research Council, of which Carey had been a Fellow since 1938. When the Academy of Science came into being, with twelve of the 24 Foundation Fellows being Fellows of the Royal Society of London working in Australia, Carey was not offered Fellowship. This, he believed, was because of objections by some Fellows who considered that his advocacy of continental drift was so outrageous that any adherent in its ranks would bring discredit to the Academy.

Carey submitted his orocline paper to the Journal of the Geological Society of Australia that year and it was reviewed perchance by three Fellows of the Academy, and rejected. In consequence, he wrote that he would never allow put his name to be put forward for election to the Academy, nor again submit a paper for publication by the Geological Society of Australia. The lines were drawn!

Following the success of the Continental Drift Symposium, Sir Harold Raggatt asked Carey's permission in 1958 to put his name forward for Fellowship. Carey declined, citing the issue of the rejection of his paper.

In February 1969, Professor Dorothy Hill, as President of the Academy, wrote to Carey saying that she had the numbers to have him elected. Again he declined nomination, comparing his earlier treatment with that of William Smith when publication of his Geological Map of the England and Wales was rejected by the Geological Society of London early in the nineteenth century (this map was subsequently published, coincidentally, by John Carey, who was found to be unrelated). He further stated that 'I do not think that the Academy will amount to anything geologically in my lifetime'.

Australia hosted, in August 1976, the 25th International Geological Congress, which was co-sponsored by the Academy and the Geological Society of Australia. The Congress was very successful and made a profit of some $70,000. The Organizing Committee of the IGC recommended to the Academy that this fund be used for a variety of geological purposes. These included contributing to organizations that had supported the Congress, paying for publication of the Congress reports, contributing to the cost of publishing a Tectonic Map of Australia, and establishing a fund for the purpose of assisting promising geologists from Australia and New Zealand to attend other IGCs, or for those from IGC-hosting countries to visit Australasia. In accordance with precedent, however, the Academy, as financial sponsor and guarantor of the Congress (which included responsibility for any losses incurred) decided that the profit should be available to support its continuing role of sponsoring international conferences in a variety of disciplines.

This decision was not acceptable to the Congress organizers, and particularly to Carey as president of the Geological Society of Australia. Much debate and strongly worded correspondence ensued, and Carey's energetic diplomacy led to his discussing the matter with the officers of the Academy in Canberra late on 20 April 1977. Later that year, the earlier Council decision was rescinded, the Congress organizers' recommendations were accepted, and a trust fund was established.

Carey followed this incident with a severe criticism of the Academy in The Australian Geologist. Until the establishment of the Academy, the Geological Society of Australia had been the Australian link to the International Union of Geological Sciences, but the Academy had now assumed that role. Carey was vehement in his criticism of the Academy, referring to it as a producer of reports that were eventually consigned to the waste-paper basket.

Outstanding achievements

Carey was foundation Professor of Geology at the University of Tasmania and held the position for thirty years, from appointment in 1946 until retirement on 31 December 1976. He was recognised internationally as a controversial extrovert who expounded vigorously his belief in Earth expansion as an explanation for what he observed in his studies of continental drift. He should perhaps be even more noted for his teaching and recruitment of students into geology. This approach caused the Geology Department at the small University of Tasmania to become Australia's leading department of earth science for many years.

As a scientist, Carey was an independent thinker, perhaps something of an intellectual 'loner'. He had several opportunities to leave Tasmania for posts at better known universities, both in Australia and overseas; however, he believed that operating in an environment with no history of commitment to geological orthodoxy provided a freer intellectual milieu. Tasmania was ideal.

While professionally deeply involved in studying first-order aspects of the way Earth functions, Carey's interest was never superficial, and he was fully conversant with the detail. This was a major philosophical conviction and applied to any interest he developed.

He was a showman and enjoyed making an impact. At a meeting in Hobart in the 1960s, at which virtually all Australian professors of geology were present, he hosted a small social gathering in the Geology Department. He entered a few minutes after the due time. All other professors referred to him as 'professor' and he addressed them (all male) as 'my boy'. All appeared to look up to him as the 'father figure'.

For all the high-level recognition he received, Carey was also highly interested in the ordinary needs of people and was an active member of Legacy for many years, organized support for the family of Sydney Sparkes Orr after Orr's death, and was available at all times to help any student who genuinely needed help.

Acknowledgements

We recognize that this review is one of many that will pay tribute to Carey and thank others in the throes of preparing such testimonials for their input. This summary should be seen as complementary to those tributes.

We thank the Australian Academy of Science and especially Professor Ross Day for this opportunity to contribute to commemorating someone who has had such a major role in our careers and way of thinking. A project such as this depends on contributions from many. Professor Carey's family, especially Mrs Austral Carey and Robyn Loughead, have been great supporters. Dr D. Branagan and Messrs J. Elliston and J.K. Davidson were sources of information and sounding boards for ideas and text. Drs K. McCracken and H.J. Harrington provided images and recollections that have improved the story. Nola Skillman of Canterbury Boys' High School helped with information on his enrolment and progress there. We thank reviewers Professors David Curtis, David Green and Ross Taylor and editor Rod Home for their very constructive comments.

June Pongratz, School of Earth Sciences, University of Tasmania, who worked closely with Carey for some forty years, helped with the production of images for this paper.

Awards

• Honorary Life Member, Royal Society of NSW
• Honorary Life Member, Geological Society of Australia
• Honorary Life Member, ANZAAS
• Honorary Foreign Life Member, Geological Society of London
• Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (FNI)
• Honorary Fellow, Geological Society of America
• Visiting Professor, Yale University (1959/60)
• U.N. Technical Adviser, Israel (1963)
• Chrestien Mica Gondwanaland Gold Medal (Geological Mining and Metallurgical Institute of India, 1963)
• Visiting Professor, University of Western Ontario (1967/68)
• Clarke Medal (Royal Society of NSW, 1969)
• Honorary DSc, University of Papua New Guinea (1970)
• R.M. Johnston Medal (Royal Society of Tasmania, 1977)
• Honorary Doctor of Geological Science, University of Urbino (1977)
• Officer of the Order of Australia (1977)
• Browne Medal (Geological Society of Australia, 1982)
• Lewis Weekes Medal (1996)
• ANZAAS Medal (1998)
• Medal of the Italian Geological Society
• Gold Medal of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (1998)
• Geological Society of America, Structural Geology and Tectonics Division, 2000 Career Contribution Award

Affiliations

• Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
• Past President, Geological Society of Australia
• Royal Society of NSW
• Past Senior Vice-President, Royal Society of Tasmania
• Royal Society of Western Australia
• Linnaean Society of NSW
• Past President, ANZAAS
• American Association of Petroleum Geologists
• Association of Photogrammetric Engineers
• Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
• Geological Society of France
• Legacy
• Australian Paratroopers' Association

About this memoir

This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol.14, no.3, 2003. It was written by:

• Patrick G. Quilty, School of Earth Sciences, University of Tasmania
• Maxwell R. Banks, School of Earth Sciences, University of Tasmania

References

In addition to family, diaries, and the World Wide Web, the following publications have provided a considerable amount of the material used here:

• Banks, M.R., 1976. Professor S. Warren Carey – some biographic data. Journal of the Geology Students Club, University of Tasmania, 10: pp. 57-68.
• Branagan, D.F. (editor), 1973. Rocks – Fossils – Profs. Geological Sciences in the University of Sydney 1866-1973. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Sydney, Sydney, 84 pp.
• Branagan, D.F., Elliston, J., and Banks, M., 1990. Samuel Warren Carey. In Branagan, D.F. (ed.) 'Knight Errant of Science'. Sir Edgeworth David Memorial Oration. Australasian Mineral Heritage Trust and others. Parkville; The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, pp. xi-xiv.
• Branagan, D.F., and Holland, G., 1985. Ever Reaping Something New – a Science Centenary. Faculty of Science, University of Sydney. University of Sydney, Sydney, 256 pp.
• Cooper, B.J., and Branagan, D.F. (editors), 1984. Rock me Hard…Rock me Soft…A History of the Geological Society of Australia. Geological Society of Australia, Sydney, 194 pp.
• Davis, R., 1990. Open to Talent – The Centenary History of the University of Tasmania, 1890-1990. University of Tasmania, Hobart, 256 pp.
• Elliston, J., 2002. Professor S.W, Carey's Struggle with Conservatism. The Australian Geologist, Newsletter No. 125: pp. 17-23.
• Harrington, H.J., Yeates, A.J., Branagan, D.F., and McNally, G.H., 1991. Sixty Years on the Rocks: the Memoirs of Professor Alan H. Voisey. Earth Sciences History Group, Geological Society of Australia, Sydney, 124 pp.
• Horton, D.C., 1983. Ring of Fire. Macmillan, Melbourne, 164 pp.
• Jennings, I.B., 1976. History of the Geological Survey and the Geological Survey Branch, Department of Mines, Tasmania. In Johns, R. K. (editor) History and Role of Government Geological Surveys in Australia. Government Printer, South Australia, Adelaide, pp. 57-63.
• Macintyre, S., 1992. S.W. Carey Symposium: after dinner address. The Australian Geologist, Newsletter No. 82: pp. 11-13.
• McGowran, B., 1994. Martin Fritz Glaessner 1906-1989. Historical Records of Australian Science, 10: pp. 61-81.
• McKie, R., 1960. The Heroes. Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 235 pp.

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32. (With N. Ahmad) Glacial marine sediments – their environment and nomenclature. In Geology of the Arctic, Proc. 1st Internat. Symp. on Arctic Geology (Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1961), pp. 865-894.
33. Palaeomagnetic evidence relevant to a change in the Earth's radius. Nature, 190 (1961), p. 36.
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37. Escala de los Fenomenos Geotectonicos. Extracto de Notas y Communicaciones del Instituto Geologico y Minero de España, 72 (1962), pp. 277-288.
38. The asymmetry of the Earth. Presidential address, ANZAAS Sec. C. Aust. J. Sci., 25 (1963), pp. 369-383, 479-488.
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46. Review of 'A global approach to geology: the background of a mineral exploration strategy based on significant form in the patterning of the Earth's crust' by B.B. Brock. Tectonophysics, 18 (1973), pp. 391-393.
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48. The expanding Earth – an essay review. Earth Sci. Rev., 11 (1975), pp. 105-143.
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64. Diagenetic krikogenesis. In The Origin of Arcs, ed. F.C. Wezel (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1986), pp. 1-40.
65. La terra in espansione, trans. G. Scaleri (Laterza: Roma-Bari, 1986), 346 pp.
66. Geotectonic setting of Australasia. In Second South-Eastern Australian Oil Exploration Symposium, ed. R.C. Glenie (Melbourne: Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, 1986), pp. 3-25.
67. Tethys and her forebears. In Shallow Tethys 2, ed. K.G. McKenzie (Rotterdam: Balkema, 1987), pp. 3-30.
68. Theories of the Earth and Universe: a History of Dogma in the Earth Sciences (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), 413 pp.
69. Knight Errant of Science. In Sir Edgeworth David Memorial Oration, ed. D.F. Branagan (Parkville; The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 1990), pp. 1-54.
70. Fifty years of oil search. In Petroleum exploration in Papua New Guinea. ed. G.J. Carman and Z. Carman (Port Moresby: PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum, 1990), pp. 17-26.
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Ross Crozier, population geneticist and leader in the study of the evolutionary genetics of social insects, was born on 4 January 1943 in Jodhpur, India. He died of a heart attack in his office at James Cook University in Townsville on 12 November 2009. He is survived by his wife Yuen Ching Kok, who was his inseparable companion and collaborator in life as in the laboratory. 

Crozier was a pioneer in the application of molecular genetic markers to the analysis of social insect populations, and generated much of the theory that made these analyses possible. Ross and Ching Crozier produced the first sequence of the honey bee mitochondrial genome – the second insect mitochondria to be fully sequenced. From the sequence Crozier produced fundamental insights into the nature of DNA evolution, particularly directional mutation pressure towards particular nucleotides. Crozier contributed massively to the development of kin selection theory, which remains the most potent explanatory theory for the evolution of social behaviour in insects.

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About this memoir

This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 22(1), 2011. It was written by Benjamin P. Oldroyd and Oliver Mayo.

Written by Peter D. Godfrey, Francis P. Larkins and John M. Swan

Introduction

Ronald Drayton Brown AM FAA (1927–2008) was born in Melbourne and had a distinguished scientific career spanning more than 60 years. He was an outstanding, internationally respected researcher in the fields of theoretical chemistry, microwave spectroscopy and galactochemistry, publishing more than 300 scientific papers, three books and three patents. He had the unique distinction of being the first professor appointed to the newly established Monash University in 1959. As Foundation Professor of Chemistry and Head of Department he had the vision, leadership skills and commitment to establish a Department that was to become one of the finest in Australia. He was a mentor to many staff and students. His legacy will shape the direction of Monash chemistry for many years.

Ron Brown died on 2 November 2008 in his 82nd year. He was the founder of the Chemistry Department at Monash University and guided its destiny for more than 30 years, establishing for it an international reputation as one of Australia’s finest schools of chemistry. He had a lifelong dedication to research and was an inspirational leader to all who were fortunate enough to be influenced by him. His expertise, passion for teaching excellence, wide knowledge of scientific issues and unbounded enthusiasm rightly earn him recognition and the respect of the international scientific community. His professional career was characterised by several stages, highlighted in each by excellence in scientific achievement. He was an accomplished and keen competitive sportsman with strong family ties. Ron (or RDB as he was known to many) was recognised for his distinguished contribution to the Australian community as an educator and researcher by his appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2002 Queen’s Birthday Honours (Fig. 1).

Family background, education and marriage

Ronald Drayton Brown was born in Melbourne on 14 October 1927 and died there on 31 October 2008. His parents were William Harrison Brown and Linda Drayton Brown, both born in Melbourne. His father was a postal officer, ending his career managing the inquiry desk at Melbourne’s Central Post Office. Ron was an only child and his mother rather discouraged him from making friends or having local children visit and play. He was, however, encouraged to do well at school and in sport, and medicine was identified as a possible career. His mother had musical talents – she played the piano very well. His father was an intelligent man, and both he and his wife were fine singers. In the 1920s and 30s, singing at home with friends ‘around the piano’ was a popular custom. Ron himself inherited a fine singing voice.

Ron’s father was an outstanding athlete in his youth and represented Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) in many track and field events. He was Australasian champion at a number of distances and held the record for the mile and three miles. Ron himself was not suited for long distance running – he had asthma problems as a youth – but excelled in cricket, in sprinting, in the long jump, the hop, step and jump, and especially, in tennis, table tennis and badminton. By the time he went to London in 1950, he was good enough at badminton to receive a blue for this sport from the University of London. He also became a member of the Surrey badminton team. He continued with this game on return to Australia and in the early 1960s was president of the Victorian Badminton Association. In a 1995 interview as part of the ‘Australian Oral History Project’ of the National Library of Australia, Ron confessed that the only ‘hero’ he might have worshipped as a child was not a scientist or a mathematician but the footballer Jack Dyer. His family had a history in Australian Rules football – his grandfather had played for Richmond and his parents used to go to the matches every Saturday and take Ron with them.

In this same interview, Ron said that his mother clearly indicated that she felt that study and scholarly achievement were important if one was to have a respectable subsequent career. Asked about his possible religious views, he said he had no belief in a personal God. His parents were religious in the Methodist tradition, but at Sunday School Ron became impatient with the biblical stories. He could not really believe them and rebelled against going to services; but he did believe strongly that the universe was governed by rational principles which it was possible to discover by systematic investigation.

Ron admitted to a rather unhappy childhood, especially at primary school where he was often bullied. Secondary school at Wesley College was a lot better – he became interested in cricket, tennis and football, in reading, and in going on picnics. During the war years of 1942 and 1943, the Wesley College precinct was taken over by the Australian Army Ordnance Corps, and the Wesley students moved to Hawthorn to become the guests of Scotch College. The Wesley boys used the classrooms in the afternoons and the Scotch boys in the mornings. Ron found the Scotch College library to be a treasure house, especially for books on astronomy. Ron and his parents lived with his maternal grandparents in the suburb of Prahran. His interest in the stars was initiated not by his parents but by his grandparents, who quizzed their young grandson when sitting outside the house on hot summer nights.

Ron was exceptionally talented. He had won a scholarship to Wesley College; he was dux of the school and topped the statewide matriculation examinations in his final year. Ron subsequently had a brilliant record at the University of Melbourne, graduating with first class honours in 1946 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He shared the Exhibition in Chemistry and the Dixon and Cuming Scholarships.

During his third year as an undergraduate student at the University of Melbourne, he was treasurer of the table tennis club. One day he found two girls playing table tennis who had apparently not paid their subscriptions so he felt bound to raise the matter with them. In an interview recorded earlier in 2008 for the Australian Academy of Science’s archives, he described one of the girls (Florence Catherine Mary Stringer, known to all as Mary) as ‘gorgeous’. Mary’s father was Frank Stringer, a Melbourne man. The other side of that story is from Mary who has said that she and a girl friend decided to join the table tennis club because it had lots of attractive young men in its membership (Fig. 2).

Ron and Mary married prior to departing for London in 1950. This very happy marriage lasted to Ron’s death in 2008. Their first son, Ronald Frank Drayton Brown, was born in London (26 December 1952), while two further children were born subsequently in Melbourne – David William Drayton Brown (1 December 1954) and Penelope Drayton Brown (20 November 1957).

While still undergraduates, Ron and Mary became keen skiers, and this interest became an important part of their family life. When living in London they had skied in Austria. On return to Melbourne they joined the Edelweiss ski lodge at Mount Hotham. In later years, they regularly shared a skiing holiday in Snowmass, Colorado, with Professor Ray Martin and his family. Ray Martin was subsequently Vice-Chancellor at Monash. Ron continued skiing until 72 years of age. In the 1950s and 60s, Ron and Mary and the family took up sailing, mainly in a Mirror dinghy as did so many of their friends and colleagues. The RDB Mirror was subsequently passed on to John Swan and his family.

Like many of his generation, Ron was given a Box Brownie camera as a child and quickly became a keen amateur photographer. Just before their marriage in 1950, he and Mary bought a cine camera to record the wedding ceremony and that interest developed into a lifetime of making travel-type family cine films, with equipment of professional quality.

Theoretical chemistry contributions 1947–1959

The period 1947–1950

During 1947–1949 Ron undertook research for the MSc degree at the University of Melbourne under the supervision of Dr F. N. Lahey on the spectroscopy of acridone alkaloids. He graduated in 1949, again sharing the Exhibition and the Dixon MSc Scholarship. The title of his thesis was ‘A Study of Certain Alkaloids by Physical and Theoretical Methods’. In 1949 he was appointed Senior Demonstrator in the Chemistry Department. In a Monash publication (Brown 2005) Ron gave a historical account of his growing interest in (and mastery of) theoretical calculations in chemistry. In 1949 he had joined the Faraday Society and in a copy of the Society’s Transactions he had come upon an article by Charles Coulson and Chris Longuet-Higgins that described the use of Hückel molecular orbital theory to calculate bond lengths and other properties of conjugated aromatic hydrocarbons. There were no staff members in either Chemistry or Physics at Melbourne who knew anything much about molecular quantum mechanics and molecular orbital (MO) theory. Ron found he could decipher Coulson’s article and repeat his calculations without having much grasp of the theory of molecular orbitals. He persevered by teaching himself about matrices and determinants, and computing eigenvalues, ‘slogging through’ the texts of Pauling and Wilson, and Eyring, Walter and Kimball. These were the only textbooks on chemical quantum mechanics that were available in the period immediately following the Second World War. At this time there were no programmable digital computers available in Australian universities. All his calculations were done by hand with electrical desk calculators with no memory facilities. The results of each arithmetical operation had to be copied to a worksheet and then re-entered on the keyboard for the next operation.

He thus somewhat accidentally entered the field of π-electrons and their use in developing a crude theory of reactivity via such quantities as charge densities, free valencies and localization energies. He was able to persuade his MSc supervisor that this was worthwhile because he would apply the theory to try to understand the ultraviolet spectra of the acronycine-type alkaloids! He did do some MO calculations on the energy levels of the π-electrons in acridone, but then became fascinated by the possibility of predicting the properties such as charge distribution and chemical reactivity of simple molecules starting only with the appropriate Hückel matrix (an array of zeros and ones). He focused on the non-benzenoid conjugated hydrocarbons, for which the calculations indicated a non-uniform electron distribution. This in turn meant that these hydrocarbons would have substantial polarities, that is, sizeable dipole moments. To the classical organic chemist, this was rank heresy. Ron was thus stimulated to learn how to measure dipole moments, and by a fortunate coincidence, Professor Ray le Fèvre had established a group of physical chemists at Sydney University with expertise in this field.

A visit to Sydney followed. Ron’s first thought was to measure the dipole moment of azulene, but a long and difficult synthesis would have been required. Le Fèvre was interested in the electronic structure of the pharmaceutical antipyrin and suggested that if Ron could prepare some 3-phenylisoxazole-5-one and bring it to Sydney, he would teach Ron how to measure dipole moments. This transpired, and a paper resulted [4]. One of the five authors, Ivan Wilson, subsequently became a staff member at Monash. That visit to Sydney also gave Ron the opportunity to meet and discuss his theoretical interests with Ian Ross, then a graduate student of David Craig. Ron commented that they were all very isolated working in Australia in those days.

Ron had the workshop at Melbourne construct a dipole moment machine, and struggled with synthesis of the azulene hydrocarbon, C₁₀H₈. He had just seen a first pyrolysate with an intense blue colour (presence of azulene) when a paper (Wheland and Mann 1949) arrived, reporting the measurement of the dipole moment of azulene, which those workers had purchased from a firm in Switzerland. He had the satisfaction of knowing that the dipole moment was substantial (about 1 Debye) – hydrocarbons could indeed be polar. This activity was the first step in a transition to a new phase in his research career.

Charles Coulson and a King’s College PhD 1950–1952

In 1950 Ron was awarded an Australian National University travelling fellowship, but was not required to return to the ANU after completing his PhD. He resigned his Senior Demonstrator position at Melbourne and elected to go to the Department of Physics at King’s College, London, to work with C. A. Coulson on theoretical problems such as the effect of dielectric media on electronic spectra. By the end of 1950 he had already published fifteen papers based on his Melbourne work. In 1951 Ron learnt that he had been awarded the Rennie Memorial Medal by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and in 1952 he became an Associate Member of the Institute. He graduated PhD from the University of London in 1952. His thesis title was ‘Wave Mechanical Treatment of Organic Reactions with Special Reference to the Diels-Alder Reaction’. Rather than researching the topic suggested by Coulson, his thesis was largely a summary of some twenty published papers describing the work he had done earlier in Melbourne and published in the period 1950–1952 on theoretical calculations of chemical structure and reactivity for a range of unsaturated, non-benzenoid hydrocarbons. He was entirely self-taught in quantum chemistry and the necessary mathematical techniques, and had done this work without any outside help or supervision. In this same year he was invited by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique to be Visiting Lecturer in Theoretical Chemistry at the Sorbonne in Paris. The lecturers for the two previous years had been Professor D. P. Craig (a fellow Australian) and Professor C. A. Coulson.

Ron recalled that in 1950, Coulson’s group in the Physics Department at King’s College consisted of several young theoretical physicists and applied mathematicians. Perhaps now the most famous of these is Peter Higgs, after whom the Higgs Boson is named. This fundamental particle, which gives mass to all bosons, is hotly sought after in particle accelerators. The person most famous at that time in the department was the Professor and Head of Department, John Randall, who, with Henry Boot, invented the cavity magnetron that we all now have in our domestic microwave ovens, but that was invented as the war-time generator of the microwaves used in radar. Others to become famous were Maurice Wilkins (Nobel prize in medicine, 1962, shared with Watson and Crick) and Rosalind Franklin, whom many think should also have shared that prize. She was in a laboratory adjacent to the one Ron shared with Higgs and the others.

Postdoctoral research at University College, London, 1952–1953

In 1952–1953 Ron was an Assistant Lecturer at University College (UC), London, working with Sir Christopher Ingold, an outstanding pioneer in the electronic principles of organic chemical reactions. At this time he became aware that there was very little quantitative information about the chemical and physical properties of molecules that could be compared with the theoretically predicted properties, so as to judge the reliability of the calculations. He was fortunate to have many discussions with a visiting American scholar, Al Matsen, famous for demonstrating that the whole of quantum mechanics could be formulated without any reference to electron spin, or indeed the spin of any particle (Matsen 1992). Matsen drew Ron’s attention to the new technique of microwave spectroscopy, which was starting to provide a wealth of data that would provide good tests, and to a lecturer, Jim Millen, who was building a microwave spectrometer at UC. Ron became involved in some of the assembly work. In later years, microwave spectroscopy became Ron’s major interest.

At UC, Ron took over David Craig’s room, David having left to return to Australia, and he inherited Ron Nyholm’s lecture course in the chemistry of coordination compounds. This was an area of chemistry to which he had never been exposed. Professor Ingold felt very strongly that all of chemistry was one subject and that any of the staff could be called upon to teach anything in the undergraduate syllabus. Ingold also felt that the pursuit of a research problem might take you to any part of chemistry – you should then be ready to inform yourself and go ahead. At UC Ron also met John Ridd who had learnt of Ron’s prediction of the mechanism of diazonium coupling to imidazole. A collaboration ensued, and Ron’s suggestion was fully confirmed [27].

Senior Lecturer appointment at the University of Melbourne 1953–1959

Ron and Mary were planning to make a life in the United Kingdom, but early in 1953 he received a lengthy telegram from the University of Melbourne, saying that they had an urgent need for a staff member to take on a particular teaching role in the Chemistry Department. To accept was a difficult decision. Ron went to see Sir Christopher Ingold about the offer. Ingold’s advice was that a return to Melbourne would be disastrous – a retreat to a backwater. He urged Ron not to take the job – it would be suicidal! But Mary’s father had died while they were away and she was concerned about the health of her mother. Ron’s concern for Mary and his strong belief that Australia would be a better place for a growing family prevailed, so they returned to Melbourne. Ron did not share Ingold’s view that Australia would be a graveyard for science. He was flown back from London, very uncommon in those days when sea travel was the norm, to take up an appointment as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, significantly above the grade for his age and experience.

Ron’s first PhD student was Ian Bassett, son of the well-known engineer Sir Walter Bassett. The research consisted of some MO calculations and some basic quantum mechanical improvements to the established methods. Subsequent students included Bruce Coller and Michael Heffernan. The class of MO calculations employed were so-called π-only calculations that were essentially elaborations of the semi-empirical self consistent field (SCF) MO method described by Pariser, Parr and Pople (PPP) in 1953. This approach treated explicitly only the electrons in the π-orbitals, with the electrons in the underlying sigma-orbitals being handled implicitly. The method involves the iterative solution of a set of linear equations (the Roothaan equations) that converge on a set of molecular orbitals and π-electron densities. This specifies the π-electron distribution and the related electronic energy levels of the molecule. The converged solution is termed a ‘Self-Consistent Field’ (SCF) solution.

As this work progressed, Michael Heffernan and Ron had developed by 1958 the ‘Variable Electronegativity Self-Consistent Field’ (VESCF) MO method in an attempt to overcome some recognized deficiencies in the reliability of results from the PPP method. In the VESCF MO method the effective nuclear charge on each atom (equivalent to its electronegativity) is made a continuous function of the π-electron density at that centre. Thus the π-electronattracting power of a given atom varies during each cycle of the iterative calculation leading to the SCF solution. The VESCF method proved to be, for the subsequent decade, the most reliable theoretical predictor of electric dipole moment values in conjugated molecules. Surprisingly, it showed that there was only a minor contribution from the polarization of the underlying sigma-bonds in conjugated molecules, even where adjacent atoms had very different electronegativity values (as in the C-O bond). Dipole moments were found to be dominated by the π-electron densities combined with the unsymmetrical charge distributions of atoms having lone-pair electrons.

Ron and a new PhD student, Richard (‘Dick’) Harcourt, decided in 1958 to investigate the nature of the weak central bond in N₂O₄. It was a widely held view at that time that this bond, like almost no other, involved only π-electrons, with no underlying sigma-bond. However, when theVESCF method was applied to N₂O₄ assuming such a bonding arrangement, results were obtained that were inconsistent with the observed properties of the compound. This led to the development of an all-valenceelectron MO procedure – the first for a polyatomic molecule that used fully asymmetrized determinantal wave functions and included all two-electron integrals. Brown and Harcourt showed that the central N-N bond in N₂O₄ is weakened by delocalization of lone-pair sigma-electrons from the oxygen atoms – a new concept in bonding [71]. It became apparent subsequently that the all-valence-electron method used by Ron Brown and Dick Harcourt, just for this N2O4 bonding investigation, was broadly the same as another approximate all-valence-electron MO method being developed at the same time by John Pople’s group. This method, applied by Pople’s group from its outset in 1965 to many different molecules (but not N₂O₄) was the very widely recognised Complete Neglect of Differential Overlap (CNDO) method.

Dick Harcourt transferred to Monash University with his supervisor and in July 1963 became the university’s first PhD graduate.

Ron’s theoretical chemistry research work up to 1959, and that of his students, had involved extensive numerical calculations conducted using electromechanical calculators. These calculators had no memories, so all intermediate results had to be transcribed, and extensive checking to eliminate manual errors was essential. A typical MO calculation would take many weeks to complete. Digital computation was still in its infancy, although Bruce Coller did complete some limited MO calculations using Australia’s first programmable digital computer CSIRAC. With the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) decision that computing research was outside its purview, this machine had been transferred from its home at the Radio-physics Laboratory at the CSIR in Sydney, to the University of Melbourne, where it formed Australia’s first academic computing facility.

Ron had a strong interest in teaching and was recognised for his lucid, well organised and inspirational lectures. Ron is now recalled by past students at Melbourne as a highly popular chemistry lecturer who also was notorious for sporting a necktie, dating from his undergraduate days, decorated with a depiction of the testosterone molecule. With Tom O’Donnell at Melbourne he made an educational film on the use of semi-micro equipment in chemical analysis and research. A copy of this film is still in existence, but the technique unfortunately seems to have vanished from the chemistry syllabus. In 1955 he published, also jointly with Tom O’Donnell, a Manual of Elementary Practical Chemistry (Melbourne University Press) that became a standard text for more than 20 years. He later published two other textbooks, Atomic Structure and Valency in 1966 (Jacaranda Press) and Valency (Springer-Verlag) in 1978 with co-authors Michael O’Dwyer and Jay Kent.

Foundation Professorship at Monash University 1959–1992

A new era dawned

Early in 1959, while still a Senior Lecturer at Melbourne, Ron made some enquiries about a Chair of Chemistry at the University of Western Australia, and was placed on a shortlist of two. The final decision went to the local candidate, but the University of Western Australia then offered Ron a Readership. Ron informed his head of department about this, and twenty-four hours later he received a matching offer of a Readership at Melbourne directly from the Vice Chancellor, which he accepted! Then on 25 March of that year he applied for the Chair of Chemistry at the newly created Monash University in Melbourne and was successful.

Ron Brown was the first professor appointed to Monash in 1960 and was the Foundation Professor of Chemistry and Chairman of the Department of Chemistry, positions he held with great distinction until 1991. He moved in 1992 to a Research Chair in Chemistry for his final year. Indeed, he was technically the first person appointed to the staff of the university, even before the first Vice Chancellor, Sir Louis Matheson. According to a 1993 minute of the Academic Board recording his retirement, ‘he has a historical position in the growth of Monash that can be matched by few Professors’. He played a major part in defining the structure of the original Bachelor of Science degree and in the growth of the Faculty of Science, as well as laying the foundations for the strong Department of Chemistry that he helped to create.

In 1985, a Silver Jubilee celebration was held and the lectures were published by the department as Twenty Five Years of Chemistry at Monash (Rae 1985). Ron Brown’s talk was entitled ‘Reminiscences of the Early Days at Monash Chemistry’. In this he revealed that in the original plan for creating Monash University, it had been suggested that if appointments were made during 1959 and construction was started by 1960, the university should be ready to take students by 1964. Amazingly, this statement, which was on the last page of the plan, was lost from the stapling, so that the date 1964 disappeared. The Interim Council then assumed that it ought to be possible to start teaching in 1961, and this was achieved. However, it meant that very intensive activity was needed to get things together in time. There were no buildings on the proposed site except for a house that later became the Vice-Chancellor’s residence, so for the first several months of 1959 Ron worked under an arrangement with the University of Melbourne and occupied a room there, and made his first appointments – Doug Ellis as laboratory manager and Miss Connie Jones as his first secretary. In 1960 the builders moved on to the site at Clayton to start the first construction: ‘In the beginning, there was mud – and more mud’. The Vice-Chancellor arranged for a group of huts to be put on the site near his residence and those early on the site were allocated rooms in these. With un-insulated galvanized iron roofs, these became exceedingly hot in the late summer and early autumn of 1960. The very resourceful groundsman – Paddy Armstrong – attempted air conditioning by means of a jet of water from a hose. Ron was always very proud, and deservedly so, of his contribution to the establishment and growth of a major new chemistry department within the Australian university system.

Ron’s influence on the types of courses and the provision of research facilities was very great and he shared this with other professors appointed during his term. Bruce West (later part-time Pro-Vice-Chancellor) and John Swan (also Pro-Vice-Chancellor and subsequently Dean of Science) were also foundation professors in his department, while Roy Jackson and Asbjorn Baklien joined him subsequently.

Brown’s Major professional achievement

When asked in an interview in 1995 what he considered to be the major achievement of his professional life, Ron said: ‘creating a chemistry department out of nothing’. He explained that:

the second decade of my career was heavily engaged in creating a chemistry department from nothing, and a university and a faculty of science from nothing. Because I was the first person appointed to Monash University I became involved in the entire business of creating a new university. That is, helping to draw up the statutes and regulations of the professorial board, the faculty of science, as well as supervising the building of all chemistry buildings; in fact, designing or partly designing them. Appointing or finding and appointing staff of all different kinds and even thinking of how you equip an empty building with the bits and pieces that you need in order to conduct chemistry. It sounds trivial but it was a gigantic undertaking.

At the Professorial Board, Ron’s opinions were always considered of importance in discussions of issues that were of significance to the University as a whole. His impact on the growth of teaching and research in Chemistry at Monash and more broadly in Australia was substantial. Monash was fortunate to have had such an eminent academic among its initial founding members.

Administrative contributions to Australian and international science

Ron’s contributions to the organization of Australian and international science were also very notable. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute in 1963. He was President of the Victorian Branch in 1963–1964 and received the Institute’s Masson Memorial Scholarship Prize in 1948, the Rennie Medal in 1951 and the H. G. Smith Medal in 1959. In 1965, at the age of thirty-eight, he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS). He served two terms on the Academy’s Council (1971–1974 and 1976–1980) and was Vice-President, Physical Sciences (1972–76) and Secretary, Physical Sciences (1976–1980). He was Chairman of the Academy’s National Committee for Chemistry. He was also chair of the Science Policy Committee and a member of the subcommittee on Chemical Education. In 1973, on behalf of the Academy he was a member of the Australian delegation that visited China at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He served on the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry as a member of the Bureau and of its Executive Committee, the Division of Physical Chemistry and the Spectroscopy Commission. In this last role he coordinated the Working Party on Theoretical and Computational Chemistry of the Physical Chemistry Division in a project for the preparation of a comprehensive listing of acronyms used in theoretical chemistry [302].

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) appointed him, in 1982, to a panel of international consultants to advise on the desirability of establishing a new commission on bioastronomy. Subsequently, he served as a member of the organizing committee of IAU Commission 51 (Bioastronomy) 1982–1997 and was its President from 1991 to 1993.

A devoted advocate for the abolition of tobacco smoking, he served for many years on the research grants assessment committee of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria.

Microwave spectroscopy at Monash University

From his earliest work in theoretical chemistry, Ron Brown had recognized that the most reliable experimental data for molecular structures and electric dipole moments came from the gas-phase measurements provided by microwave spectroscopy. However, molecules of particular significance in the testing of methods of theoretical chemistry were deemed to be too inconvenient for study by established microwave spectroscopy groups. Such molecules were highly reactive or difficult to vaporize.

During 1961–1962 klystron microwave oscillators and ancillary frequency stabilization and measurement equipment manufactured in the USA were purchased. The newly appointed electronics officer at Monash Chemistry was directed to use circuit diagrams from the scientific instrument literature to begin the construction of klystron power supplies and a high-voltage square-wave generator to be used as a Stark modulator in the planned spectrometer. The Monash Chemistry mechanical workshop staff undertook the construction of a waveguide absorption cell 3-m long, also following published drawings and descriptions.

Throughout his career Ron clearly delighted in international travel whenever appropriate. In 1964 the Brown family accompanied Ron on an extended lecture tour to the USA and Canada as a Carnegie Fellow – they travelled there by ship but, as was the growing custom, returned by aeroplane. As he visited various microwave groups, Ron transmitted back to Monash any tips and expertise that he gleaned. The two groups most helpful in this regard were Bill Gwinn’s at Berkeley and Cec Costain’s, which was part of Gerhard Herzberg’s spectroscopic laboratories at the National Research Council in Ottawa. When Ron left Ottawa he was presented with a humorous farewell gift of a formal ‘Licence to Operate a Microwave Spectrometer’ signed by Cec Costain and Gerhard Herzberg. This licence noted the condition that it would become invalid if Ron failed to publish a report involving his own microwave spectroscopy within the next five years. Ron proudly displayed the framed licence in his office for many years. This was the real start of his interest in this branch of chemistry.

On his return to Monash in 1964, Ron formally established the Monash microwave laboratory. This involved the design and building of very sophisticated equipment. In 1964 Frank Burden, a recent PhD graduate from Jim Millen’s microwave spectroscopy laboratory at University College, London, was appointed as a Senior Teaching Fellow. Ron had briefly worked with Jim Millen as an unpaid helper when they both were starting their academic careers at UC in 1952.

During 1964 the performance of the microwave spectrometer and its electronic subsystems was tested and refined, primarily by Frank Burden, employing the well-studied calibrant molecules, formaldehyde, SO₂ and OCS. By early 1965 the spectrometer was deemed ready for the observation, analysis and structural interpretation of hitherto unstudied microwave spectra. Peter Godfrey, who had been studying as an undergraduate while employed part-time as Ron Brown’s research assistant since November 1961, and who had collaborated with Frank Burden in setting up the new spectrometer, began in 1965 to study the microwave spectrum of the heterocycle selenophene as his BSc Honours research project. This compound was chosen largely because its substitution reaction chemistry was being studied by Alan Humffray at the University of Melbourne at this time. Humffray had developed a suitable synthesis set-up for this extremely malodourous compound, and he and Michael Heffernan, the latter since 1961 a lecturer at Monash with a focus in NMR spectroscopy, had measured and published its NMR spectrum in 1963. The microwave spectral measurement, assignment and analysis was completed by around June 1965 and was written up in Peter Godfrey’s BSc Honours research report. It was subsequently published in 1968 [107].

During 1965 Frank Burden was working on software, written in Sirius Autocode, to permit the prediction and analysis of microwave spectra on the rather primitive Ferranti Sirius computer that was the Monash Computer Centre’s first digital computer. The acquisition around 1966 of a much more powerful CDC 3200 computer, which supported programming in FORTRAN, greatly assisted the subsequent analysis of microwave spectra. Ron, with a clear interest in computation related to both theoretical chemistry and microwave spectroscopy, helped to guide the development of the Computer Centre’s facilities as chair of the university’s Computing Committee throughout its first decade.

Almost certainly through Ron’s close teaching collaboration with fluorine specialist Tom O’Donnell while a Senior Lecturer at Melbourne, he went to Monash with a keen interest in fluorine chemistry From 1962 he attempted, with a new PhD student, Guido Pez, to synthesize and characterize sulfur monofluoride. Two isomers, FSSF and SSF₂ seemed to be possible. The plan was to investigate the structure of any product molecules by microwave spectroscopy. The research required novel fluorine-resistant materials, and with the helpful advice of Tom O’Donnell, much experience was gained in the construction and use of monel metal vacuum lines, teflon swage-lock pipe fittings and kel-F vacuum valves. Eventually an efficient synthetic method was discovered and a mixture of FSSF and SSF₂ was produced. The two isomers were characterized by infrared spectroscopy but the report of the microwave spectroscopy of these species was ‘scooped’ in 1963 by the Harvard microwave group, several years before Ron’s first microwave spectrometer was ready. However, Ron retained some interest in fluorine chemistry, and the apparatus and techniques developed in Guido Pez’s research were put to use in 1965 by another PhD student, Ian Bowater, to produce the compound seleninyl fluoride OSeF₂. This work resulted in Ron’s first microwave spectroscopy publication, in 1967, reporting the newly measured and analysed microwave spectrum.

For the first six years of microwave spectroscopy at Monash, Ron chose all the research problems that were to be investigated. The guiding criterion was that they should bear directly on significant aspects of valence theory also amenable to calculation via MO theory. In this way the reliability of the MO calculations would be challenged by the measured properties from microwave spectroscopic studies. Of particular interest were the electronic charge distributions as reflected by the electric dipole moments in conjugated organic molecules, including both hydrocarbons and heterocycles. In the case of nitrogen heterocycles it would also be possible, via analysis of nitrogen nuclear quadrupole hyperfine splitting of the rotational transitions, to measure the electric field gradient at the nitrogen nucleus.

Most of these valence theory watershed problems involved either or both very challenging experimental and spectral theoretical requirements. Almost without exception, other microwave spectroscopy groups had chosen to focus on less wide-ranging problems and showed little interest in testing valence theory. Rather they undertook microwave spectroscopy as a research study in its own right of the quantum mechanics of molecular vibrational rotational interactions. Highly reactive, short-lived compounds were avoided, as was the complexity of the hyperfine splitting in molecules containing multiple nitrogen atoms or the spin-rotation interaction in those containing unpaired electrons.

The theory of microwave spectra in molecules with electron and multiple nuclear spin interactions were undertaken under Ron’s supervision by PhD students Peter Godfrey and Graeme Blackman. Several years’ reading in the area of Racah algebra and the theory of irreducible spherical tensors led to significant advances in the capability of the Monash group. Blackman’s work on multiple nuclear quadrupole hyper-fine structure led to the first computer program that could handle a molecule with up to four quadrupolar nuclei. Publications followed over the period 1967–1973 of the microwave spectra, with hyperfine analysis, of nitrogen-containing compounds selenadiazole, triazole and cyanogen azide N-C-NNN. Godfrey’s treatment of the rotational spectra of asymmetric-top molecules having the possibility of unpaired electrons plus an unlimited number of nuclei with non-zero spin, was applied by PhD student Ian Gillard to analyse the microwave spectrum of the stable free radical NF₂.

RDB had been fascinated from his earliest contact with theoretical chemistry by MO-theory predictions that certain nonbenzenoid conjugated hydrocarbons would have substantial electric dipole moments. This was certainly counter-intuitive for most organic chemists of the 1940s. When, as a MSc student, Ron gave a seminar on his early MO calculations at Melbourne, it was perhaps not unreasonable on hearing Ron’s prediction that azulene would be quite polar for the then head of organic chemistry, Professor Bill Davies, to assert: ‘Brown, I bet you 10 to 1 that if you could measure it you would find it to be nonpolar’. From that moment onwards Ron put much effort into making that measurement. However, he was beaten to this objective by a measurement in solution in 1949, and then by a more reliable microwave spectroscopy measurement by the ETH Zürich group in 1965 (which reported a significant dipole moment of azulene of 0. 80 D). Notwithstanding this disappointment in failing to get there first, in 1965 there remained two significant non-benzenoid hydrocarbon compounds that had yet to be prepared, let alone measured. They were the benzene isomers fulvene and 3,4-dimethylenecyclo butene. Improving on a preparation method from the literature involving flow-thermalisomerization of 1,5-hexadiyne, a sample of the unstable reactive compound 3, 4dimethylenecyclobutene was generated, primarily by efforts of a Senior Teaching Fellow, Alan J. Jones, recently appointed by Ron. The team of Ron, Frank Burden, Alan Jones and Senior Teaching Fellow Jay E. Kent, a spectroscopist newly recruited from Washington State University, then measured and analysed the microwave spectrum, including the electric dipole moment [94].

The thermal rearrangement of 1,5-hexadiyne was known to produce small amounts of the other benzene isomer of interest, fulvene. Jay Kent investigated this situation with the aim of producing a more substantial yield of fulvene. He found that by increasing the reactor temperature by several hundred degrees and employing a work-up with preparative gas chromatography, useful quantities of purified fulvene could be produced. Measurement of the fulvene microwave spectrum and dipole moment by the team of Brown, Burden and Kent followed, leading to a publication in September 1968 [104]. It was a salutary compliment to the largely independent developments in microwave spectroscopy technology made by the Monash team that one referee of this publication challenged the manuscript on the grounds that it was technically impossible, with currently available detectors and amplifiers, to detect the microwave spectrum of a molecule with such a low dipole moment as that reported (0.44 D).

Of particular interest at that time was the reliability of the newly developed, and very much more computationally intensive, semi-empirical all-valence-electron CNDO/2 MO method of Pople and Santry, compared with the π-only VESCF method of Brown and Heffernan, then almost a decade old. In the case of 3,4-dimethylenecyclobutene, both methods have predictions that are within 0.1 Debye unit of the experimental value, while for fulvene, CNDO/2 overestimates the dipole moment by 0.45 D and VESCF by 0.23 D. For the hydrocarbon azulene that had originally stimulated Ron’s interest in theoretical chemistry, CNDO/2 overestimates the dipole moment by the quite unsatisfactory error of 2.4 D, while VESCF overestimates it by 0.53 D.

Ron collaborated widely, but quite strategically, in his research. Important collaborators were the organic chemists in the department (especially Frank East-wood, Roger Brown, Gabrielle McMullen and Pat Elmes), who contributed significantly in the preparation of propadienone, butatrienone and tricarbon monoxide. Pat Elmes became a full-time synthetic chemist within the microwave group. Before these particular collaborative efforts, the spectroscopists had achieved several triumphs in this area – the work on the benzene isomers and inorganic fluorine compounds can be cited.

Other notable achievements by the Monash microwave group were the first ever vapour-phase spectrum of an amino acid glycine in 1975 (Fig. 3), the identification and characterization of a new oxide of carbon, tricarbon monoxide (C₃O), in 1983 (Fig. 4), and the structure of the hydrogen isocyanide (HNC) molecule in 1975. Measuring the microwave spectrum of the simplest amino acid, glycine, presented immensely challenging experimental problems that had defeated earlier workers. Success was achieved in 1975, although the compound’s presence in interstellar clouds remains to be demonstrated conclusively. A new procedure for the observation of microwave spectra of relatively involatile materials using a supersonic nozzle was developed. This technique enabled the group to determine accurately the structures of several key biological molecules. With the development in 1988 of the Stark-modulated free-jet microwave spectrometer, it became possible to measure the spectra of other amino acids (alanine), a vitamin (nicotinamide), neurohormones (phenylethylamine, amphetamine and histamine) and nucleic acid bases (uracil, cytosine, thymine and adenine).

Radioastronomy and galactochemistry

In 1971 Ron’s interest in astronomy led to the study of interstellar molecules via laboratory microwave spectroscopy coupled with the direct use of radio telescopes to detect molecules in outer space. He persuaded the CSIRO and groups in America and Sweden of his credentials as an astronomer. Ron’s research group, working independently and also with radio astronomy collaborators, had considerable success in discovering interstellar molecules based upon ‘molecular fingerprints’ determined through laboratory measurements. The successes included thioformaldehyde (1971); methanimine (1972); methyl formate (1975); HN¹³C (1976); vibrationally excited cyanoacetylene (1976); DNC (1977); H¹⁵NC (1977); vibrationally excited acetonitrile (1983); C₃O (1984); NH₃ maser; propynal (1988); and C₂O (1991). The convergence of Ron’s interests in theoretical chemistry, microwave spectroscopy and radioastronomy culminated in his important contributions to the new field of galactochemistry.

Chemistry and life

Ron was quick to recognise the implications from the observations of interstellar molecules for the development of theories for the origin of life. He wrote and spoke extensively on this topic [168, 176, 186, 195, 198, 204, 205, 231, 267, 286, 300].

In October 1978 he was invited to participate in a Study Group of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, on contemporary ideas regarding the origin of life [194].

In the early 1980s, Ron prepared a series of advanced lectures to chemistry majors that he hoped to publish as a book. The overall title was to be From Ylem to Life. His purpose was to present an account of our present understanding of the evolution of the universe from a very early stage to the present, focusing on two themes. One theme was to trace the production of the chemical elements, to explain how it is that we encounter such a rich collection of all the chemical elements on the surface of the Earth. Chemists should be interested in why we have such an extensive chemistry to study rather than just hydrogen mixed with a modicum of helium, so characteristic of the stars. The second theme was to explore the processes that might lead to locations in the universe favourable for the emergence of living things, including the formation of the requisite building blocks of life – amino acids, nucleic acids and carbohydrates. These lectures covered not only a wide spectrum of chemistry, but important parts of astrophysics, particle physics, cosmology and earth sciences. A copy of these ten lectures given to one of the authors has been placed in the Basser Library at the Australian Academy of Science. The word ‘ylem’ means ‘primeval fireball’ – the starting point of the universe according to the ‘big-bang’ model. Unfortunately, the lectures were never published.

The wider community

Ron Brown was always willing to contribute to problems and interests outside the university and his personal research. He gave much time to the Australian Academy of Science, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the International Astronomy Union, the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria and, in earlier times, the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. He was consulted on chemical matters by the Victorian Government and by industry. On the personal side he had a great love of travel, especially when combined with skiing or yachting holidays. He played competitive and social tennis and cricket to an advanced age, and was an exceptional family man, giving much time and affection to his children and grandchildren.

Personal tributes

A Festschrift, ‘Valence Electrons, Molecular Shapes and the Origin of Life’, was held at Monash University on 2–4 February 2005 to honour Ron’s contributions to chemistry. One of the speakers was Dr Alan J. Jones, one of his former students. His contribution was subsequently published (Jones 2005). We quote from this article:

It is difficult to provide a synopsis of Ron’s work that will do justice to the magnitude of the contributions that he made during a very active working career. His publications (some 295 papers) encompass about 22 different areas of chemistry from natural products to galactochemistry and the origins of life, but the underlying theme throughout this work is distinguished by efforts to explore electronic structure by whatever means possible, always complementing experiment with theory or vice versa, and challenging the horizons of conventional thinking, e.g. exploring molecules in space. Over those years, about 120 co-workers were associated with Ron, and most of those were graduate students in his or affiliated research groups at Monash.

Personal comments from the authors

Frank Larkins

It was in 1959 that I first met Ron Brown as my first-year physical and inorganic chemistry lecturer. He delivered lucid inspiring lectures to the honours stream at Melbourne. He was always impeccably dressed in the latest tailored suits with not a lab coat in sight. Such was the lot of a theoretical chemist. His enthusiasm for chemistry was infectious. As an aspirant honours student I visited Ron Brown in his newly constructed office in 1961, gumboots at the ready, but it was a decade later in 1971 that I joined his department as a Queen Elizabeth II Fellow and remained as a staff member for 12 years until 1983. His commitment to scientific excellence was a great inspiration to me.

John Swan

I left school in 1940 and spent four years in the wartime chemical industry before enrolling at Melbourne University after completing night-time Diploma studies in chemistry at the then Royal Melbourne Technical College. I first met Ron there in 1945, in second-year classes in chemistry, physics and mathematics. I was immediately in awe at his abilities – his remarkable grasp of these and many other subjects – and his sporting prowess. The very wide range of his many publications bears testimony to his intellectual gifts. We became friends, and later colleagues at Monash University. I feel honoured to be a co-author of this Ronald Drayton Brown memoir.

Peter Godfrey

I first met Ron Brown in 1961, at a job interview for a position as a part-time laboratory assistant at Monash. It was my plan to build upon my just-completed Diploma of Applied Chemistry from Swinburne with a more research-orientated degree from Melbourne or Monash. It was good timing – Monash was expanding and such a position was possible there, as research assistant in Ron’s newly completed spectroscopy laboratory. During 1962–1963 I explored and operated the marvellously novel NMR, IR and UV equipment as they were unpacked and set up. Although strongly tempted by research studies in physics, I ultimately opted for honours and PhD studies with Ron Brown in the first years of microwave spectroscopy at Monash. Following an overseas postdoctoral stint, I returned to Monash in 1971 to join Ron in research involving both laboratory microwave spectroscopy and radio astronomy in the new research field of interstellar molecules. There followed a long and fruitful collaboration, often involving Ron’s clear delight in international travel to obscure destinations. The special combination of his brilliant intellect and comprehensive knowledge, clever strategic instinct, personal charm that could inspire unreasonable efforts from his co-workers, and his unswerving loyalty to his research team will be my enduring memory of Ron. I am very grateful too for the warm friendship that we shared throughout our many years of collaboration.

About this memoir

This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 21(2), 2010. It was written by:

• Peter D. Godfrey. School of Chemistry, Monash University, Vic. 3800, Australia
• Francis P. Larkins. School of Chemistry, The University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010, Australia; and
• M. Swan. 1/209 Domain Road, South Yarra, Vic. 3141, Australia. Corresponding author. Email: j.m.swan@bigpond.net.au

References

1. [Anonymous] 1993, Monash University, Academic Board, 1/93, minute 4. 3.
2. Brown, R. D. 2005, ‘My Research Career’, Chemistry at Monash University 1986–2003, ed. Collins D. J. (School of Chemistry, Monash University, Clayton), 47–62.
3. Eyring, H. , Walter, J. and Kimball, G. E. 1944, Quantum Chemistry (Wiley, New York).
4. Jones, A. J. 2005, ‘Reflecting on the Impact of Professor Ronald Drayton Brown’, Chemistry in Australia, April 2005, 17–19.
5. Matsen, F. A. 1992, ‘Scientific Reminiscences’, Int. J. Quantum Chemistry 41, 7–14.
6. Pariser, R. and Parr, R. G. 1953, ‘A Semi-Empirical Theory of the Electronic Spectra and Electronic Structure of Complex Unsaturated Molecules. 1’, Journal of Chemical Physics 21, 466–471.
7. Pople, J. A. 1953, ‘Electron Interaction in Unsaturated Hydrocarbons’, Transactions of the Faraday Society 49, 1375–1385.
8. Pauling, L. and Wilson, E. B. 1935, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, with Applications to Chemistry (McGraw-Hill, New York).
9. Rae, I. D. (ed. ) 1985, Twenty Five Years of Chemistry at Monash: Silver Jubilee Commemoration (Department of Chemistry, Monash University, Clayton).
10. Wheland, G. W. and Mann, D. E. 1949, ‘The Dipole Moments of Fulvene and Azulene’, Journal of Chemical Physics 17, 264–268.

Bibliography

1. R. D. Brown (1948). A Quantum-Mechanical Investigation of the Azulene Molecule. Part I. Trans. Faraday Soc. 44, 984–987.
2. R. D. Brown (1949). Bond Localization Energy. I. Definition, Methods of Computation and Relation to Bond Order. Aust. J. Scientific Research 2A, 564–578.
3. R. D. Brown, L. J. Drummond, F. N. Lahey and W. C. Thomas (1949). Alkaloids of the Australian Rutaceae: Acronychia Baueri. II. Some Reactions of the Alkaloid Acronycine. Aust. J. Scientific Research 2A, 622–629.
4. R. D. Brown, A. A. Hukins, J. W. Le Fevre, Jean Northcott and I. R. Wilson (1949). Dielectric Polarisation and Spectroscopic Data for Antipyrin, Certain of its Derivatives, and Phenylisooxazolone. J. Chem. Soc. 1949, 2812–2816.
5. R. D. Brown (1949). A Theoretical Study of Some Non-Benzenoid Hydrocarbons. Part I. Trans. Faraday Soc. 45, 296–300.
6. R. D. Brown (1950). Fulvalene. Nature 165, 566–567.
7. R. D. Brown (1950). The Chemistry of Biphenyl. Experientia 6, 376–377.
8. R. D. Brown (1950). A Theoretical Study of Some Non-Benzenoid Hydrocarbons. Part II. Trans. Faraday Soc. 46, 146–154.
9. R. D. Brown (1950). Asymptotic Expressions for the Energies of Certain Long Molecules. Aust. J. Scientific Research 3A, 428–432.
10. R. D. Brown and F. N. Lahey (1950). The Ultraviolet Absorption Spectra of the Acridone Alkaloids. I. Compounds Containing the Acridone Nucleus. Aust. J. Scientific Research 3A, 593–614.
11. R. D. Brown and F. N. Lahey (1950). The Ultraviolet Absorption Spectra of the Acridone Alkaloids. II. Compounds Related to 4-Quinolone. Aust. J. Scientific Research 3A, 615–627.
12. R. D. Brown (1950). Theoretical Investigations of Reactivities of Conjugated Bonds. J. Chem. Soc. 1950, 3249–3254.
13. R. D. Brown (1950). Empirical Methods of Estimating Resonance Energies. Part I. Annelation Energy. Trans. Faraday Soc. 46, 1013–1018.
14. R. D. Brown (1950). A Theoretical Treatment of the Diels-Alder Reaction. Part I. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. J. Chem. Soc. 1950, 691–697.
15. R. D. Brown (1950). A Theoretical Treatment of the Diels-Alder Reaction. Part II. Polyenes. Arylpolyenes and Related Molecules. J. Chem. Soc. 1950, 2730–2735.
16. R. D. Brown (1951). A Theoretical Treatment of the Diels-Alder Reaction. Part III. Equilibria for Aromatic Hydrocarbons. J. Chem. Soc. 1951, 1612–1614.
17. R. D. Brown (1951). A Theoretical Treatment of the Diels-Alder Reaction. Part IV. The Significance of Free-Valence Numbers. J. Chem. Soc. 1951, 3129–3131.
18. R. D. Brown (1951). cycloHeptatrienone, cycloPentadienone and γ-Pyrone. J. Chem. Soc. 1951, 2670–2673.
19. R. D. Brown (1951). Molecular Orbital Calculations for Some Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Part I. J. Chem. Soc. 1951, 2391–2394.
20. R. D. Brown (1951). Studies of the Localization Theory of Organic Reactions. Part I. The Effects of Annelation and of Introducing Heteroatoms. J. Chem. Soc. 1951, 1955–1961.
21. R. D. Brown (1951). Theoretical Investigation of Reactivities of Conjugated Bonds. Part II. The Significance of Some Theoretical Quantities. J. Chem. Soc. 1951, 1950–1955.
22. R. D. Brown (1952). Molecular Orbitals and Organic Reactions. Quarterly Reviews 6, 63–69.
23. R. D. Brown (1952). Effects of Substituents on Ultraviolet Absorption Spectra. Nature 169, 286–287.
24. R. D. Brown (1952). Conjugation Energy. Aust. J. Scientific Research 5A, 339–345.
25. R. D. Brown (1952). Studies of the Localization Theory of Organic Reactions. Part II. The Effects of Substituents. J. Chem. Soc. 1952, 2229–2233.
26. R. D. Brown (1953). Les Bases des Theories des Reactions de la Chimie Organique. J. Chim. Phys. 50, 109–112.
27. R. D. Brown, H. C. Duffin, J. C. Maynard and J. H. Ridd (1953). The Mechanism of the Coupling of Diazonium Salts with Heterocyclic Compounds. Part I. Glyoxaline. J. Chem. Soc. 1953, 3937–3939.
28. R. D. Brown (1953). AQuantum-Mechanical Treatment of Aliphatic Compounds. Part I. Paraffins. J. Chem. Soc. 1953, 2615–2621.
29. R. D. Brown (1953). Aromatic Substitution at Ortho-Positions. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 75, 4077–4078.
30. R. D. Brown and F. A. Matsen (1953). United-Atom Treatment of Conjugated Systems. J. Chem. Phys. 21, 1298–1299.
31. M. Bassett and R. D. Brown (1954). A Theoretical Investigation of the Chemical Reactivity of Glyoxaline. J. Chem. Soc. 1954, 2701–2704.
32. R. D. Brown (1955). The Chemistry of Glyoxaline, Pyrrole and Pyrazole. Aust. J. Chem. 8, 100–106.
33. R. D. Brown (1956). The Localization Theory of Organic Reactions. Part III. Radical Substitution in Pyridine. J. Chem. Soc. 1956, 272–275.
34. R. D. Brown (1956). The Calculation of Atom-Self Polarizabilities and Similar Quantities in the Molecular-Orbital Theory. J. Chem. Soc. 1956, 767–769.
35. R. D. Brown andAnne Penfold (1956). Comparison of SCFMO and ASMOCI Calculations of Electron Densities. J. Chem. Phys. 24, 1259–1260.
36. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1956). Further Substitution in 5-Substituted Benziminazoles. J. Chem. Soc. 1956, 3683–3684.
37. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1956). A Theoretical Investigation of the Chemical Reactivity of Benziminazole. J. Chem. Soc. 1956, 4288–4291.
38. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1956). The Chemistry of Pyridine, Pyrimidine and Pyrazine. Aust. J. Chem. 9, 83–88.
39. M. Bassett and R. D. Brown (1956). The Overlap Integral in the Molecular-Orbital Theory of Conjugated Compounds I. General Theory. Aust. J. Chem. 9, 305–314.
40. M. Bassett and R. D. Brown (1956). The Overlap Integral in the Molecular- Orbital Theory of Conjugated Compounds. II. Hydrocarbons. Aust. J. Chem. 9, 315–318.
41. M. Bassett, R. D. Brown and Anne Penfold (1956). That Heterocyclic Nitrogen and Oxygen may be less Electron-Attracting than Carbon. Chem. and Industry, 892–893.
42. R. D. Brown (1957). Aromatic Substitution. Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Physics 1.
43. R. D. Brown (1957). Chemical Reactivity. Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Physics 2–4.
44. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1957). The π-Electron Distribution in Pyridine and the Molecular-Orbital Parameters for Nitrogen. Aust. J. Chem. 10, 211–217.
45. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1957). Charge Distribution and Dipole Moment of Pyridine. Aust. J. Chem. 10, 493–495.
46. R. D. Brown and Anne Penfold (1957). The Molecular-Orbital Parameters for Conjugated Nitrogen Atoms. Trans. Faraday Soc. 53, 397–402.
47. R. D. Brown (1957). Factors Influencing Electrophilic Substitution in Nitrogen Heterocycles. In Current Trends in Heterocyclic Chemistry (Butterworths, London), 13–19.
48. R. D. Brown, B. A. W. Coller and M. L. Heffernan (1958). The Mechanism of the Coupling of Diazonium Salts with Heterocyclic Compounds. Part III. Indazole. J. Chem. Soc. 1958, 1776–1779.
49. R. D. Brown (1958). Evaluation of Coulomb Repulsion Integrals from Spectroscopic Data. Mol. Phys. 1, 304–306.
50. R. D. Brown and B. A. W. Coller (1958). Kinetic Treatment of Consecutive Second- Order Reactions with a Concurrent Reaction. Aust. J. Chem. 11, 90–92.
51. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1958). Study of Formaldehyde by a ‘Self-Consistent Electronegativity’ Molecular- Orbital Method. Trans. Faraday Soc. 54, 757–764.
52. R. D. Brown and I. M. Bassett (1958). A Method for Calculating the First Order Perturbation of an Eigenvector of a Finite Matrix, with Applications to Molecular-Orbital Theory. Proc. Phys. Soc. 71, 724–732.
53. R. D. Brown and C. A. Coulson (1958). Les Effets des Solvants sur les Spectra D’Absorption Electroniques. CCNR Colloq. 82, 311–327.
54. R. D. Brown and B. A. W. Coller (1959). Molecular-Orbital Treatment of a New Type of Heteroaromatic Compound. Proc. Phys. Soc. 2, 158–168.
55. R. D. Brown (1959). Charge-Transfer Complex and the Mechanism of Aromatic Substitution. Part I. GeneralTheory. J. Chem. Soc. 1959, 2224–2232.
56. R. D. Brown (1959). Charge-Transfer Complexes and the Mechanism of Aromatic Substitution. Part II. Molecular-Orbital Calculations. J. Chem. Soc. 1959, 2232–2243.
57. R. D. Brown and R. D. Harcourt (1959). A Theoretical Treatment of the Chemistry of Quinoline. J. Chem. Soc. 1959, 3451–3460.
58. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1959). The Variable Electronegativity Method. IV. Glyoxaline, its Cation and Anion. Aust. J. Chem. 12, 543–553.
59. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1959). The Variable Electronegativity Method. V. Pyridine, the Pyridinium Cation, and the Evaluation of Core-Attraction Integrals. Aust. J. Chem. 12, 554–548.
60. R. D. Brown and B. A. W. Coller (1959). A Theoretical Study of the Chemistry of Furan, Pyrrole, Benzofuran, Indole, Dibenzofuran and Carbazole. Aust. J. Chem. 12, 152–165.
61. R. D. Brown, R. A. Craig andT. A. O’Donnell (1959). Chemical Education. Films as an Aid in Teaching Chemistry. Proc. Roy. Aust. Chem. Inst. 534–537.
62. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1959). The ‘Variable Electronegativity’ Method II. Pyrrole. Aust. J. Chem. 12, 319–329.
63. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1959). The ‘Variable Electronegativity’Method. III. The Pyrrole Anion and Electronegativity Reversal. Aust. J. Chem. 12, 330–334.
64. R. D. Brown and R. D. Harcourt (1960). A Theoretical Study of the Chemistry of Isoquinoline. Tetrahedron 8, 23–32.
65. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1960). The Variable Electronegativity Method. VI. Azulene. Aust. J. Chem. 13, 38–48.
66. R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1960). The Variable Electronegativity Method. VII. Pyrazole, its Anion and Cation. Aust. J. Chem. 13, 49–57.
67. R. D. Brown (1960). Equivalent Weights: A Clumsy Extravagance. Proc. Roy. Aust. Chem. Inst. 243–245.
68. R. D. Brown (1961). Chemistry at Monash. Soc. Chem. Industry 61, 175–180.
69. R. D. Brown (1961). Chemical Optimism. Proc. Roy. Aust. Chem. Inst. 64–74.
70. R. D. Brown (1961). Electronic Structure and Chemical Reactivity. Aust. J. Sci. 24, 22–26.
71. R. D. Brown and R. D. Harcourt (1961). π-Electron Delocalization and the Electronic Structure of Dinitrogen Tetroxide Proc. Chem. Soc. 1961, 216–218.
72. R. D. Brown, B. A. W. Coller and R. D. Harcourt (1961). Mechanism of Electrophilic Substitution in Quinoline and Isoquinoline. Aust. J. Chem. 14, 643–644.
73. R. D. Brown, B. A. W. Coller and M. L. Heffernan (1962). Studies of the Molecular-Orbital Theory of Chemical Reactivity. I. The Significance of Auxiliary Inductive Parameters in the Huckel M-O Theory. Tetrahedron 18, 343–348.
74. R. D. Brown and R. D. Harcourt (1963). The Electronic Structures of A2Y4 Molecules. Aust. J. Chem. 16, 737–758.
75. R. D. Brown (1963). The Molecular Orbital Theory of Electrophilic Substitution. Tetrahedron 19, 337–349.
76. R. D. Brown (1964). Modern Aspects of Heterocyclic Chemistry. Proc. Roy. Aust. Chem. Inst. 31, 1–14.
77. R. D. Brown (1964). Molecular Orbital Calculations and Electrophilic Substitution. Molecular Orbitals in Chemistry, Physics and Biology (Acad. Press Inc. ), 485–511.
78. R. D. Brown and G. P. Pez (1965). The Isomers of S2F2. Chem. Comm. 1965, 277b–278.
79. R. D. Brown, G. P. Pez and M. F. O’Dwyer (1965). Infrared Spectrum, Potential Constants and Structure of Thio-Thionyl Fluoride. Aust. J. Chem. 18, 627–635.
80. R. D. Brown and R. D. Harcourt (1965). The Electronic Structure of N2O4. I. σ-Electron Delocalization Study. Aust. J. Chem. 18, 1115–1132.
81. R. D. Brown and R. D. Harcourt (1965). The Electronic Structure of N2O4. II. The “π-Only” Structure. Aust. J. Chem. 18, 1885–1895.
82. R. D. Brown, A. S. Buchanan and A. A. Humffray (1965). Protodemercuration of Organomercuric Chlorides. I. Aromatic Mercuric Chlorides. Aust. J. Chem. 18, 1507–1512.
83. R. D. Brown, A. S. Buchanan and A. A. Humffray (1965). Protodemercuration of Organomercuric Chlorides. I. Heterocyclic Mercuric Chlorides. Aust. J. Chem. 18, 1513–1520.
84. R. D. Brown, A. S. Buchanan and A. A. Humffray (1965). Iodinolysis of Boronic Acids. Aust. J. Chem. 18, 1527–1538.
85. R. D. Brown, A. S. Buchanan and A. A. Humffray (1965). Protodeboronation of Thiophenboronic Acids. Aust. J. Chem. 18, 1521–1525.
86. R. D. Brown and V. B. Krishna (1966). Excited Electronic States of Cyclopropane. J. Chem. Phys. 45, 1482–1487.
87. R. D. Brown and F. R. Burden (1966). 3, 4-Dimethylenecyclobutene – Alternant or Non-Alternant? Chem. Comm. 1966, 448–449.
88. R. D. Brown and E. K. Nunn (1966). The Effect of Ionic Lattices on the Electronic Structures of Polyatomic Ions. I. The Triiodide Ion. Aust. J. Chem. 19, 1567–1576.
89. R. D. Brown and B. A. W. Coller (1967). Theoretical Calculations of Electric Dipole Moments for Conjugated Systems. Theoret. Chim. Acta. 7, 259–282.
90. C. Bowater, R. D. Brown and F. R. Burden (1967). The Microwave Spectrum, Structure and Dipole Moment of Seleninyl Fluoride. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 20, 272–279.
91. R. D. Brown and G. P. Pez (1967). Synthesis, Chemical Properties and U. V. Spectra of Thio-thionyl Fluoride and Difluorodisulphane. Aust. J. Chem. 20, 2305–2313.
92. P. J. Black, R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1967). Proton Chemical Shifts and Electron Densities in Aromatic and Heteroaromatic Molecules II. Derivatives of Pyrrole and Furan. Aust. J. Chem. 20, 1325–1334.
93. P. J. Black, R. D. Brown and M. L. Heffernan (1967). Proton Chemical Shifts and Electron Densities in Aromatic and Heteroaromatic Molecules. I. Procedure and Chemical Shift Corrections; Applications to Azines. Aust. J. Chem. 20, 1305–1323.
94. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden, A. J. Jones and J. E. Kent (1967). The Rotational Constants and Dipole Moment of 3, 4-Dimethylenecyclobutene. Chem. Comm. 1967, 808b–809.
95. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and J. E. Kent (1967). Microwave Spectrum Dipole Moment and Quadrupole Coupling Constants of 1, 2, 5-Selenadiazole. Chem. Phys. Lett. 1, 379–381.
96. R. D. Brown, B. H. James, M. F. O’Dwyerand K. R. Roby (1967). Towards an Adequate Molecular Orbital Interpretation of the Ultraviolet Spectrum of the Permanganate Ion. Chem. Phys. Lett. 1, 459–464.
97. R. D. Brown and J. B. Peel (1968). VESCF-MO studies of Molecules Containing Atoms from the Second Row of the Periodic Table. I. The General Problem. Aust. J. Chem. 21, 2589–2603.
98. R. D. Brown and J. B. Peel (1968). VESCF-MO Studies of Molecules Containing Atoms from the Second Row of the Periodic Table. II. Properties of the Fluorides of Silicon. Phosphorus, Sulphur, andChlorine for a Minimal Basis Set Excluding3D-Orbitals. Aust. J. Chem. 21, 2605–2615.
99. R. D. Brown and J. B. Peel (1968). VESCFMO Studies of Molecules Containing Atoms from the Second Row of the Periodic Table III. Properties of the “Trigonal-bipyramidal” Molecules, Phosphorus Pentafluoride, Sulphur Tetrafluoride, and Chlorine Trifluoride, and a Minimal Basis Set Including3d-Orbitals. Aust. J. Chem. 21, 2617–2629.
100. R. D. Brown and J. B. Peel (1968). Urey-Bradley Potential Constants for Second-RowFluorides. Aust. J. Chem. 21, 2361–2365.
101. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and G. M. Mohay (1968). Polarities of Hydrocarbons and Non-Neighbour Resonance Integrals. Aust. J. Chem. 21, 1695–1702.
102. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and G. R. Williams (1968). Ultraviolet Spectra of Non-Alternant Hydrocarbons: The Significance of Non-Neighbour Resonance Integrals and of Configuration-interaction. Aust. J. Chem. 21, 1939–1951.
103. R. D. Brown, B. A. W. Coller and J. E. Kent (1968). 1, 2, 5-, 1, 3, 4- and 1, 2, 4-Oxadiazoles. A Theoretical Study of Electric Dipole Moments. Theoret. Chim. Acta 10, 435–446.
104. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and J. E. Kent (1968). Dipole Moment, Microwave Spectrum and Electronic Structure of Fulvene. J. Chem. Phys. 49, 5542–5542.
105. R. D. Brown, M. F. O’Dwyer and K. R. Roby (1968). Effect of Ionic Lattices on Electronic Structures of Polyatomic Ions. Theoret. Chim. Acta. 11, 1–7.
106. R. D. Brown and F. R. Burden (1968). Optimum Parametrization of the Pople-Santry-Segal Method of Treating all Valence Electrons. Theoret. Chim. Acta. 12, 95–103.
107. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and P. D. Godfrey (1968). The Microwave Spectrum of Selenophene. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 28, 415–421.
108. C. Bowater, R. D. Brown and F. R. Burden (1968). The Microwave Spectrum, Dipole Moment and Structure Analysis of Seleninyl Fluoride. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 28, 461–470.
109. C. Bowater, R. D. Brown and F. R. Burden (1968). The Microwave Spectrum, Dipole Moment and Structure Analysis of Selenium Tetrafluoride. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 28, 454–460.
110. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and G. M. Mohay (1969). The Dipole Moment of Sulphur Dioxide. Aust. J. Chem. 22, 251–253.
111. R. D. Brown (1969). Where are the Electrons? Proc. Royal Soc. , N. S. W. 102, 73–81.
112. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown and F. R. Burden (1970). The Microwave Spectrum Dipole Moment and Nuclear Quadrupole Coupling Constants of Pyrimidine. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 35, 444–454.
113. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown and F. R. Burden (1970). The Quadrupole Hyperfine Structure of the Microwave Spectrum of Pyrazole. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 36, 528–540.
114. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and W. Garland (1970). Microwave Spectrum & Dipole Moment of Pyridine-N-Oxide. Chem. Phys. Lett. 7, 461–462.
115. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and G. R. Williams (1970). Electron Distribution in Heterocycles. Jerusalem Symposium on Quantum Chemistry and Biochemistry, II. The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
116. R. D. Brown and G. P. Pez (1970). Vibrational Spectra of Thio-thionyl Fluoride and Difluoro Disulphane. Spectrochim. Acta 26A, 1375–1386.
117. R. D. Brown and K. R. Roby (1970). Approximate Molecular Orbital Theory forInorganic Molecules. I. Analysis of Possible Integral Approximations. Theoret. Chim. Acta 16, 175–193.
118. R. D. Brown and K. R. Roby (1970). Approximate Molecular Orbital Theory for Inorganic Homecules. II. Methods of Evaluating Basic Parameters. Theoret. Chim. Acta 16, 194–216.
119. R. D. Brown and K. R. Roby (1970). Approximate Molecular Orbital Theory forInorganic Molecules. III. Comparative Calculationson the Sulphate Anion. Theoret. Chim. Acta 16, 278–290.
120. R. D. Brown and K. R. Roby (1970). Approximate Molecular Orbital Theory for Inorganic Molecules. IV. Electron Correlation in Molecular Orbital Calculations. Theoret. Chim. Acta 16, 291–302.
121. R. D. Brown, B. H. James and M. F. O’Dwyer (1970). Molecular Orbital Calculations on Transition Element Compounds. I. Method. Theoret. Chim. Acta 17, 264–278.
122. R. D. Brown, B. H. James and M. F. O’Dwyer (1970). Molecular Orbital Calculations on Transition Element Compounds. I CNDO Type Studies of Permanganate and Chromate. Theoret. Chim. Acta 17, 279–292.
123. R. D. Brown, B. H. James and M. F. O’Dwyer (1970). Molecular Orbital Calculationson Transition Element Compounds. III. MCZDO Studies of Permanganate and Chromate. Theoret. Chim. Acta 17, 362–370.
124. R. D. Brown, B. H. James and M. F. O’Dwyer (1970). Molecular Orbital Calculations on Transition Element Compounds. IV. Effect of Electrostatic Environment of Crystal Lattices. Theoret. Chim. Acta 19, 45–54.
125. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and G. R. Williams (1970). Simplified ab-initio Calculations for Molecular Systems. Theoret. Chim. Acta 18, 98–106.
126. R. D. Brown and P. G. Burton (1970). Transition-Element Hexafluoride Systems in Ionic Lattices. A SUHF Molecular Orbital Study. Theoret. Chim. Acta 18, 309–328.
127. R. D. Brown, P. J. Domaille and J. E. Kent (1970). The Experimental Electronicand Vibrational Spectra of Fulvene. Aust. J. Chem. 23, 1707–1720.
128. P. B. Blackburn, R. D. Brown, J. G. Crofts andI. R. Gillard (1970). The Microwave Spectrum, Structure, Dipole Moment and 14NNuclear Quadrupole Coupling Constant of Acetonitrile-N-Oxide. Chem. Phys. Lett. 7, 102–104.
129. R. D. Brown and B. W. N. Lo (1970). Comments on the Approximate Calculation of Lattice Potential. Theoret. Chim. Acta 19, 369–372.
130. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, M. W. Sinclair, J. C. Ribes and N. Fourikis (1971). Radio Detection of Interstellar Thioformaldehyde. Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. I. A. U. No. 2362.
131. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, N. Fourikis and M. W. Sinclair (1971). Transition of Interstellar Acetaldehyde. Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. I. A. U. No. 2379.
132. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and A. Mishra (1971). Quadrupole Couplingin 1-D-pyrazole and 4-D-pyrazole. Principal Quadrupole Coupling Constants for Pyrazole. J. Mol. Struct. 9, 465–473.
133. K. Bolton, R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and A. Mishra (1971). The Microwave Spectrum and Dipole Moment of 1, 2, 4-Triazole:Identification of Tautomer in Vapour Phase. J. Chem. Soc. D 1971, 873–873.
134. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden, L. F. Phillipsand G. R. Williams (1971). Simplifiedab-initio Calculations on Hydrogen-Containing Molecules. Theoret. Chim. Acta 21, 205–210.
135. R. D. Brown and B. W. N. Lo (1971). Potentialof Charge Distribution in Point ChargeLattices. Part I. The Method. J. Phys. C 4, 263–276.
136. R. D. Brown and B. W. N. Lo (1971). Potential of Charge Distribution in Point Charge Lattices. Part II. Applications. J. Phys. C 4, 277–288.  
137. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and B. T. Hart (1971). Merged Gaussian Lobe Basis SCFMO Calculations. Theoret. Chim. Acta22, 214–223.
138. R. D. Brown (1972). In-Service Training:A World Wide Problem. Australian Science Teachers Journal, 49–52.
139. P. A. Baron, R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden, P. J. Domaille and J. E. Kent (1972). The Microwave Spectrum and Structure of Fulvene. J. Mol. Struct. 43, 401–410.
140. P. D. Godfrey, R. D. Brown, B. J. Robinson and M. W. Sinclair (1972). Radio Detection f Interstellar Formaldimine. I. A. U. Communication No. 2410.
141. K. Bolton, R. D. Brown and F. R. Burden (1972). The Microwave Spectrum and Electronic Structure of Cyanogen Azide. Chem. Phys. Lett. 15, 79–80.
142. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and B. T. Hart (1972). Comparison of Lobe Cartesian Gaussian Basis Sets for Molecular Calculations. Theoret. Chim. Acta 25, 49–53.
143. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown and F. R. Burden (1973). Electric and Magnetic Properties of BrCN from Microwave Zeeman Measurements. J. Chem. Phys. 59, 3760–3761.
144. P. A. Baron and R. D. Brown (1973). Microwave Spectra of Transient Species – Cyclopentadienone. Chem. Phys. 1, 444–446.
145. G. L. Blackman, K. Bolton, R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and A. Mishra (1973). An Analysis of the Four Nuclear Quadrupole Problem: The Microwave Spectrum of Cyanogen Azide. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 47, 457–468.
146. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden, B. T. Hart and G. R. Williams (1973). The Electronic Structure of the NF2 Radical. Theoret. Chim. Acta 28, 339–353.
147. R. D. Brown and G. R. Williams (1973). Application of the ab-initio UHF Method to the Calculation of Potential Energy Surface for Small Free Radicals. Mol. Phys. 25, 673–694.
148. R. D. Brown and G. R. Williams (1973). The Simplified ab-initio Method: Calculation of Linear Polarizability. Aust. J. Chem. 26, 921–925.
149. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and G. R. Williams (1973). Non-empirical Molecular Orbital Calculations Based on STO. A Restricted Use of Gaussian Expansions. Aust. J. Chem. 26, 1151–1157.
150. R. D. Brown and P. G. Burton (1973). ‘Balance’ and Predictive Capability in Approximate Molecular Orbital Theory. Chem. Phys. Lett. 20, 45–49.
151. R. D. Brown (1973). The New World of Galactochemistry. Chem. Br. 9, 450–455.
152. R. D. Brown and J. G. Crofts (1973). The Microwave Spectrum of Tellurophene. Chem. Phys. 1, 217–219.
153. P. D. Godfrey, R. D. Brown, B. J. Robinson and M. W. Sinclair (1973). Discovery of Interstellar Methanimine. Astrophys. Lett. 13, 119–121.
154. R. A. Bachelor, J. W. Brooks, P. D. Godfrey and R. D. Brown (1973). A Search for Interstellar Molecular Lines in the Frequency Range 8. 6 to 9. 2 GHz. Aust. J. Phys. 26, 557–560.
155. J. C. Ribes, J. C. Ables, P. D. Godfrey and R. D. Brown (1973). Observations of Formamideat 6 cm in Sagittarius B2. Aust. J. Phys. 26, 79–84.
156. M. W. Sinclair, N. Fourikis, J. C. Ribes, B. J. Robinson, R. D. Brown and P. D. Godfrey (1973). Detection of Interstellar Thioformaldehyde. Aust. J. Phys. 26, 85–91.
157. B. J. Robinson, J. W. Brooks, P. D. Godfrey and R. D. Brown (1974). Detection of the 31–31 (A) Transition of Methanol in SagittariusB2. Aust. J. Phys. 27, 865–868.
158. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden, P. D. Godfrey and I. R. Gillard (1974). Microwave Spectrum ofNF2. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 25, 301–321.
159. P. D. Godfrey, R. D. Brown, N. Fourikis, M. W. Sinclair and B. J. Robinson (1974). Microwave Emission of the 211-212 Rotational Transition in Interstellar Acetaldehyde. Aust. J. Phys. 27, 425–430.
160. K. Bolton and R. D. Brown (1974). Studyof Potential Interstellar Molecules: Nuclear Quadrupole Coupling Constants of the Nitrogen Atom in Pyrrole. Aust. J. Phys. 27, 143–146.
161. R. D. Brown and G. R. Williams (1974). Ab Initio Calculations on Some SmallRadicals by the Unrestricted Hartree-Fock Method. Chem. Phys. 3, 19–34.
162. R. D. Brown (1974). Interstellar Molecules – Theory. IAU Symposium No. 60, Galactic Radio Astronomy, 129–134.
163. N. Fourikis, M. W. Sinclair, R. D. Brown, J. G. Crofts and P. D. Godfrey (1974). A Search for Interstellar Nitroxyl (HNO). Astrophys. J. 194, 41–42.
164. R. D. Brown, J. G. Crofts, F. F. Gardner, P. D. Godfrey, B. J. Robinson and J. B. Whiteoak (1975). Discovery of Interstellar Methyl Formate. Astrophys. J. 197, 29–31.
165. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfreyand H. I. Gunn (1975). Searching for HNC. Chem. Phys. Lett. 34, 241–243.
166. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and J. Storey (1975). The Microwave Spectrum of Urea. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 58, 445–450.
167. K. Bolton, R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and A. Mishra (1975). The Microwave Spectrum and Structure of 1, 2, 4-Triazole. J. Mol. Struct. 27, 261–266.
168. R. D. Brown (1975). Search for the Origin of Life. Australian Science Teachers Journal21, 53–57.
169. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and A. Mishra (1975). Quadrupole Hyperfine Structure of the Microwave Spectrum of 1, 2, 4-Triazole and N-Deuterotriazole. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 57, 294–300.
170. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown and A. P. Porter (1975). Microwave Spectrum of o-Benzoquinone. J. Chem. Soc. 1975, 499–499.
171. R. D. Brown and J. Matouskova (1975). Microwave Spectrum and Quadrupole Coupling Constants of 3-Chloropyridine. J. Mol. Struct. 29, 33–37.
172. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and J. W. V. Storey (1976). Detection of Interstellar HN13C. Nature 262, 672–674.
173. F. O. Clark, R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, J. W. V. Storey and D. R. Johnson (1976). Detection of Interstellar Vibrationally Excited Cyanoacetylene. Astrophys. J. Lett. 210, L139–L140.
174. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and I. R. Elsum (1976). Nuclear Quadrupole Coupling in the Microwave Spectrum of Imidazole. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 60, 63–70.
175. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and H. I. Gunn (1976). The Microwave Spectrum of HNC: Identification of U90. 7. Nature 261, 395–396.
176. R. D. Brown (1977). Interstellar Molecules. Galactochemistry and the Origin of Life. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 2, 124–139.
177. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and W. Garland (1977). Nuclear Quadrupole Coupling in the Microwave Spectrum of1, 2, 3-Triazole. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 65, 313–318.
178. P. D. Godfrey, M. P. Bassez, A. L. Ottrey, D. Winkler and B. J. Robinson (1977). Detection of J=2→1 Emission of Acetonitrile (CH3CN) in Sgr B2. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 180, 1–3.
179. P. D. Godfrey, R. D. Brown, H. I. Gunn, G. L. Blackman and J. W. V. Storey (1977). Detection of Interstellar DNC. Difficulties of Chemical Equilibrium Hypothesis for Enrichment. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 180, 83–86.
180. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown, R. F. C. Brown, F. W. Eastwood and G. L. McMullen (1977). The Microwave Spectrum of Methylene Ketene. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 68, 488–491.
181. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, H. I. Gunn, G. L. Blackman and J. W. V. Storey (1977). Observation of J=1→0 Emission of H15NC. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 180, 87–89.
182. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, A. L. Ottrey and J. W. V. Storey (1977). Quadrupole Hyperfine Structure of the Rotational Spectrum of Aminoacetonitrile. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 68, 359–366.
183. N. W. Witte and R. D. Brown (1977). The Possibility of Detecting DC3N in IRC+10216. Proc. ASA 3, 2.
184. R. D. Brown (1977). Deuterium Enrichmentin Interstellar HCN and HNC. Nature270, 39.
185. R. D. Brown (1977). Deuterium in the Galaxy. Proc. ASA 3, 199.
186. R. D. Brown (1977). Interstellar Molecules and the Origin of Life. Chem. in N. Z. 42, 58–62.
187. G. L. Blackman, R. D. Brown, R. F. C. Brown, F. W. Eastwood, G. L. McMullen and M. L. Robertson (1978). Methyleneketenes and Methylenecarbenes. X. Precursors for the Generation of Methyleneketene and Deuterated Methyleneketenes for Microwave Spectroscopy. Aust. J. Chem. 31, 209–213.
188. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, J. W. V. Storey and M. P. Bassez (1978). Microwave Spectrum and Conformation of Glycine. J. Chem. Soc. 1978, 547–548.
189. R. D. Brown (1978). Microwave Spectral Studies of Interstellar Molecules. Pure &Appl. Chem. 50, 771–779.
190. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, J. G. Crofts, Z. Ninkov and S. Vaccani (1979). Molecular Ion Fluorescence Excitation Spectrum from an Ion Beam. Chem. Phys. Lett. 62, 195–197.
191. C. J. Marsden, R. D. Brown and P. D. Godfrey (1979). The Microwave Spectrum and Molecular Structure of Sulphur Monochloride. S2Cl2. J. Chem. Soc. 1979, 399–401.
192. R. D. Brown, R. F. C. Brown, F. W. Eastwood, P. D. Godfrey and D. McNaughton (1979). Generation of Butatrienone (Vinylidene Ketene)by Flash Vacuum Pyrolysis and Measurement of its Microwave Spectrum. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 101, 4705–4708.
193. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, J. W. V. Storey andM. P. Bassez (1979). A Search for Interstellar Glycine. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 186, 5–8.
194. R. D. Brown (1979). Organic Matter in Interstellar Space. Pontificia Academia Scientiarum Commentarii – III 26, 1–24.
195. R. D. Brown (1979). Galactochemistry and the Origin of Life. Chem. Br. 15, 570–579.
196. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and M. Woodruff (1979). The Microwave Spectrum of Vinylketene. Aust. J. Chem. 32, 2103–2109.
197. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and D. A. Winkler (1980). Detection of the 23–22 Emission of Sulphur Monoxide and the Relevance to Magnetic Fields in Orion. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 190, 1–6.
198. R. D. Brown (1980). The Origin of Life on Earth. Australian Academy of Science, Silver Jubilee Symposium. Vol. III, Life: Hierarchies of Interacting Molecules (Canberra), 1–6.
199. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and A. L. Ottrey (1980). The High Resolution Rotational Spectrum of 2-Cyanoaziridine. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 82, 73–80.
200. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and A. L. Ottrey (1980). The High Resolution Microwave Spectrum of Cyclopropyl Cyanide. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 81, 303–307.
201. R. D. Brown (1980). Introduction to Scientific Advances and Community Risk (Australian Academy of Science, Canberra), 1–6.
202. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and D. A. Winkler (1980). The Microwave Spectrum of (Z)-Ethanimine. Aust. J. Chem. 33, 1–7.
203. R. D. Brown (1980). Rotational Spectroscopy of Positive Molecular Ions. Molecular Physics and Quantum Chemistry into the ’80s. Molecular Physics and Quantum Chemistry Workshop, 2, 3 (1–11).
204. R. D. Brown (1981). Interstellar Molecules and the Origin of Life. In Proc. Third ISSOI Conference, Jerusalem 1980, ed. Y. Wolman (D. Reidel, Dordrecht), pp. 1–9.
205. R. D. Brown and J. B. Youatt (1981). Origins of Chirality in Nature – A reassessment of the postulated role of bentonite. Science212, 1145–1146.
206. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and D. McNaughton (1981). The Microwave Spectrum and Structure of Phosphaethene, CH2=PH. Aust. J. Chem. 34, 465–470.
207. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, R. Champion and D. McNaughton (1981). The Microwave Spectrum and Geometry of Propadienone (Methylene Ketene). J. Am. Chem. Soc. 103, 5711–5715.
208. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, D. C. McGilvery, J. G. Crofts (1981). Microwave-Optical Double Resonance in Molecular Ions – CO+. Chem. Phys. Lett. 84, 437–439.
209. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and D. A. Winkler (1981). The Microwave Spectrum of HCN Dimer. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 89, 352–355.
210. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and D. A. Winkler (1981). Hyperfine Interactions in the Microwave Spectrum of 2-Propen-1-imine (Vinylimine). Chem. Phys. 59, 243–247.
211. R. D. Brown and E. K. Nunn (1981). The Quality of Research in Australian Universities. Search 12, 431–433.
212. R. D. Brown and E. Rice (1981). Interstellar Deuterium Chemistry. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 303, 523–533.
213. R. D. Brown (1981). Microwave Spectroscopy of Transient Species. Science Progress 67, 481–491.
214. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and D. A. Winkler (1982). Hyperfine Interactions of Methanimine. Aust. J. Chem. 35, 667–672.
215. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, R. Champion and M. Woodruff (1982). The Microwave Spectrum of Propynethial, HC≡C-CHS. Aust. J. Chem. 35, 1747–1753.
216. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, R. Champion and D. McNaughton (1982). Additions & Corrections. The Microwave Spectrum & Geometry of Propadienone. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 104, 6167–6167.
217. R. D. Brown (1983). The Peculiar Structure of Propadienone (H2C3O). J. Mol. Struct. 97, 293–302.
218. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, P. F. Goldsmith, Robert Krotkov and R. L. Snell (1983). Vibrationally Excited CH3CN and HC3N in Orion. Astrophys. J. 274, 184–194.
219. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, B. T. Hart, A. L. Ottrey, M. Onda and M. Woodruff (1983). Bond Order: Bond Length Relationships in Conjugated Hydrocarbons: The Microwave Spectrum and Structure of 3, 4-Dimethylene-cyclobutene. Aust. J. Chem. 36, 639–648.
220. R. D. Brown, R. G. Dittman, D. C. McGilvery and P. D. Godfrey (1983). Laser-Induced Fluorescence Excitation Spectroscopy of the A2_→X2_ Transition in 13C16O+. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 101, 61–70.
221. R. D. Brown, F. W. Eastwood, P. S. Elmes and P. D. Godfrey (1983). Tricarbon Monoxide. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 105, 6496–6497.
222. R. D. Brown and R. G. Dittman (1984). Explaining the Unexpected Structure ofPropadienone. Chem. Phys. 83, 77–82.
223. R. D. Brown and E. H. N. Rice (1984). Tricarbon Monoxide – A Theoretical Study. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 106, 6475–6478.
224. R. D. Brown, R. G. Dittman and D. C. McGilvery (1984). Re-measurement of the A 2_i→X 2_ (0, 0) band in 12C16O+ by laser-Induced Fluorescence Excitation Spectroscopy. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 104, 337–342.
225. H. E. Matthews, W. M. Irvine, P. Friberg, R. D. Brown and P. D. Godfrey (1984). A New Interstellar Molecule: Tricarbon Monoxide. Nature 310, 125–126.
226. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, B. Kleibömer, R. Champion and P. S. Elmes (1984). Cyclopropylidine Methanone: A quasi symmetric Molecule. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 106, 7715–7718.
227. R. D. Brown and P. D. Godfrey (1984). Stark Effect Measurements of Molecular Dipole Moments. Aust. J. Chem. 37, 1951–1954.
228. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, M. Rodler and L. M. Tack (1984). Generation, Microwave Spectrum and Dipole Moment of Ketenimine. Chem. Phys. Lett. 110, 447–451.
229. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, R. Champion and P. S. Elmes (1985). The Structure of Propadienone. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 107, 4109–4112.
230. R. D. Brown and D. M. Cragg (1985). Large Velocity Gradient Modelling of SagittariusB2. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 215, 395–416.
231. R. D. Brown (1985). Prebiotic Matter in Interstellar Molecules. In The Search for Extraterrestrial Life: Recent Developments, IAU Symposium 112, 123–137 (D. Reidel, Dordrecht).
232. R. D. Brown, P. S. Elmes, P. D. Godfrey, M. Rodler and L. M. Tack (1985). The Microwave Spectrum and Structure of Tricarbon Monoxide. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 107, 4112–4115.
233. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and B. Kleibömer (1985). The Inversion Spectrum of Cyanamide. J. Chem. Soc. , Chem. Commun. 1985, 784–785.
234. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and E. H. N. Rice (1985). Detection of Weak Molecular Lines. The Observatory 105, 12–15.
235. R. D. Brown, E. H. N. Rice and M. Rodler (1985). Ab Initio Studies of the Structures and Force Fields of Ketenimine and Related Molecules. Chem. Phys. 99, 347–356.
236. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and B. Kleibömer (1985). Microwave Spectrum and Structure of Cyanamide: Extension of Semi-rigid Bender Treatment. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 114, 257–273.
237. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, D. M. Cragg, E. H. N. Rice, W. M. Irvine, P. Friberg, H. Suzuki, M. Ohishi, N. Kaifu and M. Morimoto (1985). Tricarbon monoxide inTMC-1. Astrophys. J. 297, 302–308.
238. R. D. Brown, E. H. N. Rice, A. D. E. Pullinand M. Rodler (1985). The Infrared Spectrum and Force Fields of C3O. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 107, 7877–7880.
239. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and D. McNaughton (1985). The Microwave Spectrum of Selenoformaldehyde. Chem. Phys. Lett. 118, 29–30.
240. R. D. Brown (1986). Tricarbon monoxide –Theory and Experiment. Int. Rev. Phys. Chem. 5, 101–106.
241. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and B. Kleibömer (1986). Vibrational Satellites in the Microwave Spectrum of Cyclopropylidene Methanone. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 118, 317–333.
242. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, M. J. Ball, S. Godfrey, D. McNaughton, M. Rodler, B. Kleibömer and R. Champion (1986). Is Butatrienone Kinked? J. Am. Chem. Soc. 108, 6534–6538.
243. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, D. McNaughton and P. Taylor (1986). The Structure ofH2CSefrom Microwave Spectroscopy. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 120, 292–297.
244. R. D. Brown and M. Head-Gordon (1986). Calculation of Molecular Spin-Rotation Constants. Chem. Phys. 105, 1–6.
245. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and B. Kleibömer (1986). Generation, Microwave Spectrum Dipole Moment and Structure of Fluoroketene CHFCO. Chem. Phys. 105, 301–305.
246. S. C. Madden, W. M. Irvine, H. E. Matthews, R. D. Brown and P. D. Godfrey (1986). New Interstellar Masers in Nonmetastable Ammonia. Astrophys. J. Lett. 300, L79–L84.
247. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, M. Rodler and B. Kleibömer (1986). The Rotation-Inversion Spectrum of Ketenimine, H2C=C=NH. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 118, 267–276.
248. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and M. Rodler (1986). The Microwave Spectrum of Benzyne. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 108, 1296–1297.
249. R. D. Brown and E. H. N. Rice (1986). Galactochemistry I. Influence of Initial Conditions on Predicted Abundances. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 223, 405–428.
250. R. D. Brown and E. H. N. Rice (1986). Galactochemistry II. Deuterium Chemistry. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 223, 429–442.
251. R. D. Brown (1987). The Universe Unfolds. In Confronting Creationism: Defending Darwin, ed. D. R. Selkirk and F. J. Burrows. (Univ. New South Wales. Press, Sydney), 41–48.
252. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and R. Champion (1987). The Rotation Vibration Spectrum and Double-Minimum ν12 Potential Function of Propadienone. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 123, 93–125.
253. R. D. Brown and M. Head-Gordon (1987). Ab Initio Calculations of 14N Nuclear Quadrupole Coupling Constants for Nitrogen. Mol. Phys. 61, 1183–1191.
254. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and B. Kleibömer (1987). The Inversion-Torsion Motion in Vinylamine. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 124, 21–33.
255. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and D. McNaughton (1987). Spin-Rotation Hyperfine Structure in the Rotational Spectrum of 77Se Selenoformaldehyde. Mol. Phys. 61, 783–787.
256. R. D. Brown (1987). Understanding Kinky Molecules. Chem. Br. 23, 1189–1192.
257. R. D. Brown and Dinah Cragg (1987). A New Interstellar Maser. Australian Physicist 24, 184–188.
258. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, P. Elmes and D. McNaughton (1987). The Generation and Microwave Spectrum of Propadienethione, H2C3S. J. Chem. Soc. , Chem. Commun. 1987, 573–574.
259. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and B. Kleibömer (1987). Conformation of Formamide. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 124, 34–45.
260. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and R. P. Bettens (1987). The Dipole Moment of C3H2. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 227, 19P–20P.
261. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, D. McNaughton and K. Yamanouchi (1987). Hyperfine Structure in Thioformaldehyde. Mol. Phys. 62, 1429–1433.
262. S. C. Madden, P. Freiberg, R. D. Brown and P. D. Godfrey (1988). Ammonia Maser Flare in W51. Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, I. A. U. Circular No. 4537.
263. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and T. Sakaizumi (1988). The Microwave Spectrum of Dicyanothioketene. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 129, 293–306.
264. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, D. McNaughton and A. Pierlot (1988). The Microwave Spectrum of Uracil. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 110, 2329–2330.
265. R. D. Brown, D. McNaughton and K. G. Dyall (1988), Pentacarbon Monoxide –A Theoretical Study. Chem. Phys. 119, 189–192.
266. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, B. Kleibömerand M. Head-Gordon (1988). The Vibrationaldependence of the Field Gradient in Cyanamide. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 130, 213–220.
267. R. D. Brown (1988). Exotic Chemical Life. IAU Symp. Hungary 1987. In The Next Steps, ed. G. Marx (Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht), 179–185.
268. R. D. Brown, K. G. Dyall, P. S. Elmes, P. D. Godfrey and D. McNaughton (1988). The Generation, Microwave Spectrum and Structure of Propadienethione, H2C=C=C=S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 110, 789–792.
269. R. D. Brown (1988). Molecules Shapely and Kinky. Australian Academy of Science, Matthew Flinders Lecture 1988.
270. R. D. Brown, J. G. Crofts, P. D. Godfrey, D. McNaughton and A. P. Pierlot (1988). AStark-modulated Supersonic Nozzle Spectrometer for Millimetre-wave Spectroscopy of Larger Molecules of Low Volatility. J. Mol. Struct. 190, 185–193.
271. W. M. Irvine, R. D. Brown, D. M. Cragg, P. Friberg, P. D. Godfrey, N. Kaifu, H. E. Matthews, M. Ohishi, H. Suzuki and H. Takeo (1988). A New Interstellar Polyatomic Molecule: Detection of Propynal in the Cold Cloud TMC-l. Astrophys. J. Lett. 335, L189–L193.
272. R. D. Brown (1988). Kinky Molecules. Chem. Br. 24, 770–770.
273. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, D. McNaughton and A. Pierlot (1989). Microwave Spectrum of the Major Gas-Phase Tautomer of Thymine. J. Chem. Soc. , Chem. Comm. 1989, 37–38.
274. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, D. McNaughton and A. Pierlot (1989). A Study of the Major Gas-phase Tautomer of Adenine by Microwave Spectroscopy. Chem. Phys. Lett. 156, 61–63.
275. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and K. Wiedenman (1989). CHFCO; Further Studies of its Microwave Spectrum. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 136, 241–249.
276. R. D. Brown, F. R. Burden and A. Cuno (1989). Production of Interstellar HCN &HNC. Astrophys. J. 347, 855–858.
277. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, D. McNaughton and A. P. Pierlot (1989). Tautomers of Cytosine by Microwave Spectroscopy. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 111, 2308–2310.
278. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, D. McNaughton, A. P. Pierlot and W. Taylor (1990). The Microwave Spectrum of Ketene. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 140, 340–352.
279. R. D. Brown, D. Cragg and R. P. Bettens (1990). Interstellar Chemistry: “Hot-ion”Reactions. III. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 245, 623–636.
280. R. D. Brown, P. S. Elmes and D. McNaughton (1990). The Infrared Spectrum of Nitrous Sulfide, N2S, J. Mol. Spectrosc. 140, 390–400.
281. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, B. Kleibomer, A. P. Pierlot and D. McNaughton (1990). Submillimeter-wave spectrum, far infrared spectrum and inversion potential of vinylamine. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 142, 195–204.
282. R. D. Brown and D. Cragg (1991). Pumping the Interstellar (6, 3) Ammonia Maser, Astrophys. J. 378, 445–454.
283. B. Vogelsanger, R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and A. P. Pierlot (1991). The microwave spectrum of a vitamin: Nicotinamide. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 145, 1–11.
284. B. Vogelsanger, P. D. Godfrey and R. D. Brown (1991). The Rotational Spectra of Biomolecules: Histamine. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 113, 7864–7869.
285. M. Ohishi, H. Suzuki, S. Ishikawa, C. Yamada, H. Kanamori, W. Irvine, R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey and N. Kaifu (1991). Detection of a New Carbon-Chain Molecule, CCO. Astrophys. J. Lett. 380, L39–L42.
286. R. D. Brown, D. M. Cragg and R. P. A. Bettens (1991). The Formation of Long Chains of Carbon Atoms in Space. In Bioastronomy: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life, ed. J. Heidmann and M. J. Klein (Springer-Verlag, Berlin), 80–84.
287. R. P. A. Bettens and R. D. Brown (1992). The Microwave Spectrum and the Structure of Bromochlorodifluoromethane (BCF). J. Mol. Spectrosc. 155, 55–76.
288. R. D. Brown, D. M. Cragg, P. D. Godfrey, W. M. Irvine, D. McGoonagle and M. Ohishi (1992). Recent Observations of Interstellar Molecules: Detection of CCO, Origins of Life 21, 399–405.
289. R. P. A. Bettens and R. D. Brown (1992). Interstellar Chemistry: Oxygen and its Influence on Complex Molecule Formation andComplex Molecules containing Oxygen in Dark Clouds. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 258, 347–359.
290. D. M. Cragg, P. D. Godfrey and R. D. Brown (1992). Pumping the Interstellar Methanol Masers. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 259, 203–208.
291. L. D. Hatherley, R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, A. P. Pierlot, W. Caminati, D. Damiani, L. B. Favero and S. Melandri (1993). The Gas-phase Tautomeric Equilibrium of 2-Pyridinone and 2-Hydroxypyridine:Microwave Spectroscopy. J. Phys. Chem. 97, 46–51.
292. R. P. A. Bettens, R. D. Brown, D. M. Cragg, C. J. Dickinson and P. D. Godfrey (1993), Interstellar Chemistry and the Tight FIR/Radio Correlation. M. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 263, 93–97.
293. P. D. Godfrey, S. Firth, L. D. Hatherley, R. D. Brown and A. P. Pierlot (1993). Millimetrewave Spectroscopy of Biomolecules: Alanine. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115, 9687–9691.
294. D. M. Cragg, M. A. Mektiev, R. P. Bettens, P. D. Godfrey and R. D. Brown (1993). Line Strengths of Methanol by the Internal Axis Method. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 264, 769–772.
295. R. D. Brown (1993). Structural Informationon Large Amplitude Motions. In Structures and Conformations of Non-Rigid Molecules, ed. J. Laane, M. Dakkouri, B. van derVeken, and H. Oberhammer (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht), 99–112.
296. R. D. Brown (1994). Bioastronomy: Triennial Report. Reports on Astronomy XXIIA, 583–593.
297. R. D. Brown, P. D. Godfrey, B. Kleibömerand D. McNaughton (1994). Structures and Flexibilities of the Alkali Hydroxides. J. Mol. Struct. 327, 99–106.
298. P. D. Godfrey and R. D. Brown (1995). The Shape of Glycine. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 117, 2019–2023.
299. P. D. Godfrey, L. Hatherley and R. D. Brown (1995). The Shapes of Neurotransmitters by Millimetre Spectroscopy: Phenylethylamine. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 117, 8204–8210.
300. R. D. Brown (1995). Bioastronomy and Pseudo-science, Progress in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life, ASP Conference Series, ed. G. S. Shostak, 74, 9–10.
301. P. D. Godfrey, R. D. Brown and F. M. Rogers (1996). The Missing Conformers of Glycine and Alanine: Relaxation in Seeded Supersonic Jets. J. Mol. Struct. 376, 65–81.
302. R. D. Brown, J. E. Boggs, R. Hilderbrandt, K. Lim, I. M. Mills, E. Nikitin and M. H. Palmer (1996). Acronyms Used in Theoretical Chemistry. Pure & Appl. Chem. 68, 387–456.
303. R. D. Brown (1996). Interstellar Molecules. In Australian Astronomers, ed. R. Bhathal (National Library of Australia, Canberra), 117–129.
304. P. D. Godfrey, F. M. Rogers and R. D. Brown (1997). Theory versus Experiment in Jet Spectroscopy: Glycolic Acid. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 119, 2232–2239.
305. P. D. Godfrey, R. D. Brown and A. N. Hunter (1997). The Shape of Urea. J. Mol. Struct. 413–414, 405–414.
306. P. D. Godfrey and R. D. Brown (1998). Proportions of species observed in jet spectroscopy– vibrational energy effects: histaminetautomers and conformers. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 120, 10724–10732. 3
307. S. J. McGlone, P. S. Elmes, R. D. Brown andP. D. Godfrey (1999). Molecular Structure of a Conformer of Glycine by Microwave Spectroscopy. J. Mol. Struct. 485–486, 225–238. 3
308. P. D. Godfrey, R. N. Jorissen and R. D. Brown (1999). The Shapes of Molecules by Millimetre–Wave Spectroscopy: 2-Phenylethanol. J. Phys. Chem. A 103, 7620–7629.
309. J. G. Crofts, R. D. Brown and P. D. Godfrey (1999). Conformers of β–Vinylethanol: Internal Hydrogen Bonding to π–Bonded System. J. Phys. Chem. A 103, 3629–3635.
310. P. D. Godfrey, R. N. Jorissen and R. D. Brown (2000). The Shapes of Molecules by Millimetre-Wave Spectroscopy: 2-Phenylethanol. Additions and Corrections. J. Phys. Chem. A 104, 2144–2144.
311. P. D. Godfrey, M. J. Mirabella and R. D. Brown (2000). Structural Studies of Higher Energy Conformers by Millimeter-Wave Spectroscopy: Oxalic Acid. J. Phys. Chem. A 104, 258–264.
312. F. L. Bettens, R. P. Bettens, R. D. Brown and P. D. Godfrey (2000). The Microwave Spectrum, Structure and Ring Puckering of the Cyclic Dipeptide Diketopiperazine. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 122, 5856–5860. http://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/hras
313. R. D. Brown and P. D. Godfrey (2000). Detection of a Higher Energy Conformer of 2-Phenylethanol by Millimeter-Wave Spectroscopy. J. Phys. Chem. A 104, 5742–5746.
314. P. D. Godfrey, S. J. McGlone and R. D. Brown (2001). The Shapes of Neurotransmitters by Millimetrewave Spectroscopy. J. Mol. Struct. 599, 139–152.
315. S. Brünken, M. C. McCarthy, P. Thaddeus, P. D. Godfrey and R. D. Brown (2006). Improved line frequencies for the nucleicacid base uracil for a radioastronomical search. Astron. Astrophys. 459, 317–320.
316. D. McNaughton, P. D. Godfrey, R. D. Brown and S. Thorwirth (2007). Millimetre Wave Spectroscopy of PANHs: Phenanthridine. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 9, 591–595.
317. D. McNaughton, P. D. Godfrey, R. D. Brown, S. Thorwirth and J. -U. Grabow (2008). FT-MW and Millimeter Wave Spectroscopy of PANHs: Phenanthridine, Acridine and 1, 10-Phenanthroline. Astrophys. J. 678, 309–315.

Books

318. R. D. Brown and T. A. O’Donnell, Manual of Elementary Practical Chemistry, 1955, Melbourne University Press.
319. R. D. Brown, Atomic Structure and Valency, 1966, Jacaranda Press.
320. M. F. O’Dwyer, J. E. Kent and R. D. Brown, Valency, 1978, Springer-Verlag.

Patents

• Australian Patent P16983 31. 10. 1991: Microwave Spectrometer, Applicant: Monash University. Inventors: Ronald D. Brown, Peter D. Godfrey, Jonathan G. Crofts.
• United States Patent 5, 057, 782 Oct. 15, 1991: Microwave Spectrometer, Assignee: Monash University. Inventors: Ronald D. Brown, Peter D. Godfrey, Jonathan G. Crofts.
• European Patent EP 0 401 277 B1 10. 04. 1996: Microwave Spectrometer, Proprietor: Monash University. Inventors: Ronald D. Brown, Peter D. Godfrey, Jonathan G. Crofts.

Rod Rickards graduated with first class honours from the University of Sydney in 1955 and began his academic career at the University of Manchester in close association with Arthur Birch. In 1966 he returned to Australia to a foundation appointment in the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University, where he spent the remainder of his career. 

His research was primarily concerned with the organic and biological chemistry of compounds of medical, biological, agricultural and veterinary importance, and was characterised by an integration of organic synthesis, biomimetic synthesis, structural and stereochemical studies, and biosynthetic studies using isotopically labelled precursors in vivo. 

His interests ranged widely and included antibiotics, regulatory factors that initiate antibiotic production and control cell differentiation and sexuality in microorganisms, elicitors that communicate between bacteria and plants, mammalian hormones of the prostaglandin group that control many aspects of human physiology, juvenile hormones, which mediate the development and reproductive physiology of higher dipteran insects and the therapeutically active components of Cannabis resin.

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About this memoir

This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 22(2), 2011. It was written by Lewis N. Mander and Martin A. Bennett.

Robert William Bilger was born in Rustenburg, in the North-west Province of South Africa on 22 April 1935 and died in Sydney, New South Wales, on 2 October 2015. He had a distinguished academic career at the University of Sydney. His most important contribution to combustion research was the pioneering of conditional moment closure methods as a reliable predictive tool for turbulent reacting flows. He also made significant contributions to environmental flows and combustion chemistry.

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About this memoir

This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol.27(2), 2016. It was written by Roger I. Tanner and Assaad R. Masri.

Following wartime work on radar and a University of London PhD awarded for measurement of absolute power, Bob Street developed his interest in low-temperature magnetism in solids while on the staff at Sheffield University. In 1960 he became Foundation Professor of Physics at Monash University where he built a department with strong capabilities in solid state physics. His own research continued at Monash but was put aside when he became Director of the Research School of Physical Sciences at the Australian National University (1973–7) and then Vice-Chancellor at the University of Western Australia (1978–86). Although the ANU experience was not a happy one, he flourished at UWA where his initiatives and strategic thinking laid the groundwork for advancement of the university. Street had kept up with advances in his research field and upon retirement he went back to it with notable success in publication, supervision of research students, acquisition of research grants and fruitful collaborations. He is fondly remembered as a first class physicist with a passion for cricket.

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About this memoir

This memoir was originally published in Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 27(2), 2016. It was written by Michael N. Barber and Paul G. McCormick.