COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANIZATION

P.O: Box 225, Dickson, A.C.T. 2602

INFORMATION FOR THE PRESS

13

Canberra For immediate release

U.S. AWARD TO CSIRO SCIENTIST

Dr A. Walsh, Assistant Chief of the CSIRO Division of Chemical

Physics,  who developed the atomic absorption spectrophotometer,

has been selected to receive a spectroscopy award in the U.S.A.,

the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Malcolm Fraser

announced today (16 February 1972).

Mr Fraser said that as a result of the work of Dr Walsh and his

colleagues Australia was the acknowledged world leader in atomic

absorption research as well as in its application to the economy

About 15,000 atomic absorption instruments were now in use

throughout the world.

Australia was a major exporter and the instrument was also

being manufactured under licence to CSIRO in major industrial

countries, Mr Fraser said.

Dr Walsh has been awarded the Maurice F. Hasler Award in

Spectroscopy, presented annually by the Society for Applied

Spectroscopy, U.S.A.

The award takes the form of a scroll and an honorarium of $1,000

Dr Walsh will receive the award at the national meeting of the

Society for Applied Spectroscopy in Dallas,  Texas next September

when he will describe atomic absorption research in his Award

address.

The award is a memorial to Dr Maurice P. Hasler, recognised

throughout the world as a foremost scientist in the application

of spectroscopy to chemical analysis.

.  .  .  2

2.

Dr Walsh and his team developed the atomic absorption

spectrophotometer as a result of brilliantly original research

followed by years of patient work.

A highly sophisticated instrument,  it is widely used throughout

the world in industry, agricultural research and medicine.

The instrument has made a major contribution to mineral

exploration in Australia by the ease with which it can carry

out rapid analyses in the field.

Dr Walsh,  a Fellow of the Royal Society, London, a Fellow of

the Australian Academy of Science and a Foreign Member of the

Royal Academy of Sciences, Stockholm,  received the Brittanica

Science Award in 1966.

For further information please contact: Mr ÃÂ. P. Black,

CSIRO Head Office,

Limestone Avenue,

CAMPBELL, A.C.T. 2601

Telephone: 484257

(Home: 485215)

