Australia
In the closing months of 1943 Bowen seemed to be at "loose ends" because his work in the USA was virtually finished and the invasion of Europe by the Allies was imminent. Bowen was invited to come to Australia to join the CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory and in May 1946 he was appointed Chief of the Division of Radiophysics. Bowen addressed many audiences on the development of radar, its military uses and its potential peacetime applications to civil aviation, marine navigation and surveying.
In addition to developments in radar, Bowen also undertook two other research activities: the pulse method of acceleration of elementary particles; and air navigation resulted in the Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) that was ultimately adopted by many civil aircraft.
He also encouraged the new science of radioastronomy and brought about the construction of the 210 ft radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. During visits to the USA, he met two of his influential contacts during the war, Dr. Vannevar Bush who had become the President of the Carnegie Corporation and Dr. Alfred Loomis who was also a Trustee of the Carnegie Corporation and of the Rockefeller Foundation. He persuaded them in 1954 to fund a large radio telescope in Australia with a grant of $250,000. Bowen in return helped to establish US radio astronomy by seconding Australians to the California Institute of Technology.
Bowen played a key role in the design of the radio telescope at Parkes. At its inauguration in October 1961 he said "...the search for truth is one of the noblest aims of mankind and there is nothing which adds to the glory of the human race or lends it such dignity as the urge to bring the vast complexity of the Universe within the range of human understanding."
The Parkes Telescope proved timely for the US space program and tracked many space probes including the Apollo missions. Later Bowen played an important role in guiding the optical Anglo-Australian Telescope project during its design phase. This was opened in 1974.
Bowen also instigated rain-making experiments in Australia in 1947, and continued after he retired in 1971.
Read more about this topic: Edward George Bowen
Famous quotes containing the word australia:
“It is very considerably smaller than Australia and British Somaliland put together. As things stand at present there is nothing much the Texans can do about this, and ... they are inclined to shy away from the subject in ordinary conversation, muttering defensively about the size of oranges.”
—Alex Atkinson, British humor writer. repr. In Present Laughter, ed. Alan Coren (1982)
“I like Australia less and less. The hateful newness, the democratic conceit, every man a little pope of perfection.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)