Dr Manchester is widely acknowledged as a world authority on pulsars. His monograph "Pulsars" with Professor J. H. Taylor of Princeton, published in 1977, remains the standard reference work on the subject. Following the major survey (Manchester et al. 1978) which more than doubled the number of known pulsars, Dr Manchester and his collaborators have made extensive contributions to the study of the galactic distribution and period evolution of pulsars. He has also been active in other areas of astrophysics, notably the study of the spiral structure of our Galaxy (Robinson et al.,1987) and the structure and evolution of supernova remnants (Manchester, 1987). From 1981 to 1987 he was leader of the Astrophysics Group in the CSIRO Division of Radiophysics. Dr Manchester has been a leading advocate of the development of a radio synthesis telescope in Australia and is a member of the Advisory Committee and Chairman of the Scientific Objectives Committee for the Australia Telescope.