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SIR MARK OLIPHANT 1901-2000
18 July 2000

The President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Brian Anderson, today expressed the deep sense of loss felt by all scientists on the passing of the Academy’s founding President, Sir Mark Oliphant.

'Sir Mark was Australia’s leading statesman of science in the post-war period, following his ground-breaking research in Cambridge with Sir Ernest Rutherford before the Second World War.

'He payed a pivotal role during the War in developing radar for aircraft and later in the Manhattan Project that produced the first atomic bombs, an experience that led him to a deeply held personal conviction that scientists had a responsibility to help avoid the catastrophic consequences of our growing technical capacities.

'When, after the Second World War, Australia was reaching for a future based on the new scientific revolution, Mark Oliphant accepted the challenge of returning to Australia to help form the Australian National University, becoming the founding Director of the Research School of Physical Sciences in 1950. His role was crucial to the success of the ANU as one of Australia’s greatest research resources. In doing so, he gave up greater opportunities for personal research achievement overseas.

'While at the ANU, Mark Oliphant joined with other leading scientists in 1954 to found the Australian Academy of Science, another pillar of Australia’s current scientific capacity. His global standing was essential in winning the support of Sir Robert Menzies, the then Prime Minister, for the project, and he became the Academy’s first president.

'Following his retirement from the ANU, Sir Mark served as Governor of South Australia from 1971 to 1976 and, in many less formal ways, became the best known and loved public face of Australian science.

'I am expressing to his family the condolences of all of Australia’s scientists in their loss.'