Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Wednesday 5 May 1954, page 17


HONOUR FOR

SCIENTIST

Degree For Sir John Madsen

An honorary doctorate of science will be conferred on Sir John Madsen, chairman of the Australian Radio Re-search Board, at the Univer-sity of Sydney to-day.

The ceremony, at which 257 science and engineering de-grees will be conferred, will be held in the Great Hall at 3 p.m.

Sir John Madsen will give an address.

The degree Sir John will re-ceive is in recognition of his contributions to science in Australia.

Sir John was Professor of Electrical Engineering at Syd-ney University from 1920 to 1949 and for shorter periods was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, chairman of the Professorial Board, and a Fel-low of the Senate. He is a Sydney University graduate.

In 1927 he founded and be-came chairman of the Austra-lian Radio Research Board, which established a reputation for fundamental research equal to that of similar bodies in Great Britain and the U.S.A.

It'was this board which pro-vided a nucleus of trained scientists to form the Radiophysics Laboratory of C.S.I.R.O., set up during the

PROFESSOR SIR JOHN

MADSEN

war. Its establishment fol-lowed a visit to England by Sir John Madsen to confer with Allied defence authorities on the initiation of suitable radar research in Australia, and it has now achieved a high international reputation.

The importance of Austra-lian contributions to radio re-search were recognised when the Union Radio Scientific Internatipnale (U.R.S.I.) held its 10th general assembly at Syd-ney University in Augui!. 1952. This was the first time an international scientific body had met elsewhere than m Europe or the U.S.A.

As a member of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Sir John Madsen also took an active part in the extension of the interests «it the council from agricultuial problems to those of secon-dary industry. He was largely responsible for the establish-ment of the National Stan-dards Laboratory.