John Paul Wild - Researcher and Administrator

Researcher and Administrator

In 1971, Paul Wild took over from E.G. 'Taffy' Bowen as chief of CSIRO's Division of Radiophysics. For someone who joined a particular research team so that he could "do his own thing", it may be surprising that he agreed to be appointed to this role. He explained his motivation:

Well all my life, scientific life, people have given me lots of resources and lots of opportunities and I think it's a matter of duty; when the finger is pointed to you it's your duty to pay back some of those wonderful things that have been given. That's how I became an administrator. when I was Chief of Division I was not merely an administrator, because I also led a research group on the Interscan landing system.

That Interscan was an applied research group was no accident. In fact he had perceived a problem inherent in the Division of Radiophysics being solely involved in pure research – a situation that had never applied in CSIRO. He felt it was very important to "demonstrate to everyone that one could turn this technology into something useful."

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