| Issue 62 (WAIS 2) Contents
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The Malcolm McIntosh Memorial
Lecture
Rosemary Sutton
Children’s Cancer
Institute Australia
In June 2000, the Members Australia Credit Union generously offered to sponsor a public lecture series held in memory of the late Sir Malcom McIntosh, Chief Executive of the CSIRO. In 2002, the Second Malcolm McIntosh Memorial Lecture incorporated the plenary session of the conference. The session considered women advancing debates and understanding on science, engineering and technology issues in the public arena and was open to the public. Selected groups of girls from several high schools and media representatives also attended. Members Australia were represented by Chair of the Board Mr John Baistow.
Sir Malcolm McIntosh, or Dr McIntosh, as we referred to him
in CSIRO, was the head of CSIRO for 4 years before his untimely death nearly 3
years ago. As a former staff member of CSIRO, I greatly admired him and I was
deeply honoured to be asked to chair this session. His vision was to do the
best science for Australia and to realize the potential of that science to
benefit Australia’s industry and the country as a whole. An essential part of
that commitment was enabling all the staff to reach their potential, including
fully supporting equity for women. He provided CSIRO sponsorship for the first
WAIS conference and he commissioned a major report on Gender Equity in CSIRO
by his personal scientific advisor Dr Sandra Eady. While he was CEO of CSIRO,
three women were appointed to positions of Chief of Division.
The opening address in the session was given by Ms Pru Goward, the Sex
Discrimination Commissioner and was entitled “Professional women: Choice and
Challenge”. Her address is produced in full in these proceedings. Ms Goward
has championed the provision of paid maternity leave for women in Australia.
Malcolm McIntosh was a physicist by training and recognized talent where ever it was, in people of all ages. I think he would have been delighted to meet our young keynote speaker, a cosmologist Dr Janna Levin from Cambridge. Janna is one of those exceptional scientists who are able to explain their highly complex science to the public. She is the author of the “How the Universe got its Spots” and gave an inspiring presentation entitled “Finding our Place in the Universe”.
Malcolm McIntosh was a brilliant leader who established a rapport with the 7000 staff in CSIRO through personal visits to many of the 70 sites, through video and email contact. He was an excellent communicator able to share his vision of Science for Australia. To continue the theme of communicating science in an exciting way, we had a joint presentation from two Professors from the University of New England, Gisela Kaplan and Lesley Rogers, who spoke on “Science with a Passion. Incidental Careers and Planned Experiments.”
Malcolm McIntosh 1945-2000
CSIRO
Chief Executive, 1996-2000 Born in Melbourne in
1945, Dr McIntosh graduated in science from the
Australian National University where he later
obtained a PhD in physics.
He started his career as a cadet in the Weapons Research Establishment, Salisbury, South Australia in 1966. After two years National Service in the Australian Army, where he rose to the rank of Major in 1973, he joined the Defence Department to work on Army manpower modelling and was then promoted to the Department of Labour and Immigration.
Whilst attached to several government departments in Canberra during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dr McIntosh worked on economic analysis and economic and industrial impacts of government policies, including the Committee of Inquiry into Technological Change in Australia in 1979. Dr McIntosh rose to become Chief of Capital Procurement in the Department of Defence in 1988 and then Secretary of the Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce in 1990. In 1991, he moved to the United Kingdom to take up the position of Chief of Defence Procurement for the UK Ministry of Defence. He was knighted for this work in 1996 and was awarded the US Department of Defence Medal for Distinguished Public Service. In February 1996 he took up the position of Chief Executive Officer of the CSIRO. Regarded as one of the nation’s outstanding science leaders, Dr McIntosh was universally respected for his vision, his energy, his leadership and his personal qualities. He was appointed a Companion in the Order of Australia in 1998, for his services to excellence in scientific and technological research, to new opportunities for industry, and to the Australian defence industry and science policy.
Dr
McIntosh was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in
October 1995. He died in Melbourne on 7 February
2000.
Pauline Gallagher