David Rivett (Science Manager)

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Sir Albert Cherbury David Rivett KCMG (born December 4, 1885 in Dover , Tasmania , Australia , † April 1, 1961 in Sydney , New South Wales , Australia) was an Australian chemist and science manager.

Live and act

Albert Cherbury David Rivett was the second child of the clergyman and pacifist Albert Rivett (1855-1934). His father was from Norwich , England , received a degree in theology from Bow, East London, and was sent to Australia by the Colonial Missionary Society in 1879. There he married Elizabeth Mary Ann Cherbury in Fitzroy , Victoria in 1881 . They had five daughters and two sons: Eleanor Harriett (1883–1972), Albert David (1885–1961), Elsie Grace (1887–1964), Olive Murray (1889–1981), Amy Christine (1891–1962), Edward William (1894–1962) and Doris Mary (1896–1969).

Albert David was born in 1885 and grew up in Victoria in Yarrawonga and Beechworth. He received a scholarship to Wesley College in Melbourne and in 1902 a scholarship from Melbourne University , where he attended Queen's College. There he was particularly influenced by the Methodist clergyman Edward Sugden , who was a Masters at Queen's College, and the chemist David Orme Masson (1858-1937), through whom he switched from studying medicine to science. Masson was Rivett's teacher, mentor and friend until his death in 1937. In 1906 Rivett obtained a Bachelor of Sciences. In 1907 he was awarded a Rhodes scholarship and went to the Lincoln College of Oxford University , where he student of Nevil Vincent Sidgwick was. He graduated in 1909 as a Bachelor of Arts and in 1910 as a Bachelor of Sciences. He worked experimentally in particular on the hydration of acid anhydrides . In 1910 he went to Stockholm for six months to the Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry , headed by Svante Arrhenius , and worked on problems of equilibrium in heterogeneous systems . From 1911 he taught chemistry at the University of Melbourne. In 1913 he received the D.Sc. and a Master of Arts from Oxford University .

During the First World War he initially worked for the Medical Corps of the Australian Army . He later worked in a munitions factory in Swindon in the English county of Wiltshire in the production of pure ammonium nitrate , a component of the explosive Amatol . This work resulted in the publication The Phase Rule and the Study of Heterogeneous Equilibria in 1923 .

In 1919 he returned to Melbourne University and in 1920 was appointed associate professor . In 1924 he took over the chair from David Orme Masson.

Science manager

CSIR executives George Julius, David Rivett and Arnold Richardson (from left)

In 1914 he was the organizing secretary of the Australian meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science for the first time in the field of science organization. In 1926 he was appointed with the engineers George Alfred Julius (1873-1946) and William Johnstone Newbigin (1874-1927) as a "scientific member" on the board of the newly formed Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). After initially working part-time, Rivett became a full-time member and managing director in 1927 and left the university. Although he doubted his own suitability, his sense of responsibility to the public and the involvement of David Orme Masson influenced his decision.

Rivett tried to build small research teams under the direction of a respected scientist and to allow the group as much freedom as possible. He accepted that applied science should be given priority first, but insisted on a commitment to basic research. His goal was to spend half of the resources on basic research, but that turned out to be unrealistic. Although he became more dissatisfied with the work of the CSIR in the 1930s, he became chairman of the CSIR after the death of Georg Julius in 1946. He again paid particular attention to the focus on the independence of science and the promotion of basic research and planned the formation of new disciplines such as animal genetics, animal physiology, atomic physics and meteorological physics. However, for him the problem of secrecy in science was one of the most uncomfortable aspects of the post-war period; In 1948 he publicly criticized the effects of secrecy in science and called for a return to internationalist principles. On the other hand, the work and the safety of the CSIR from home and abroad have been questioned, among other things because some of the younger employees are said to have been Communist sympathizers . The CSIR was also restructured in its leadership and in 1949 renamed the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Rivett did not accept these changes, believing they would destroy the organization's autonomy, and retired in 1949. For a year he was chairman of a newly founded advisory board.

David Rivett was President of the Society of Chemical Industry of Victoria from 1930 to 1931 and President of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science from 1937 to 1939 . In 1940 and 1949 he was President of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and in 1949 President of the Society of Chemical Industry in London. He helped found the Australian National University and was a founding member of the Australian Academy of Science in 1954 . He was a director of the Australian subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries , Australia and New Zealand Bank Limited and several insurance companies.

David Rivett married on November 11, 1911 the then research student of chemistry Stella Deakin (1886-1976), the daughter of Alfred Deakin . With her he had two sons. Rohan (1917–1977) was a journalist and newspaper editor, Kenneth (1923–2004) was an economist and political activist.

David Rivett died in Sydney on April 1, 1961 and was cremated. After his death, Prime Minister Robert Menzies described him as "one of the greatest Australians of our time".

Honors

Fonts

  • Neutral salt action as exhibited in the freezing points of mixtures in aqueous solution. Almqvist & Wiksells, Uppsala 1911, OCLC 248301086 .
  • The Phase Rule and the Study of Heterogeneous Equilibria. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1923, OCLC 913150993 .
  • Oil production from coal viewed from an Australian standpoint. Report. Johnston, Canberra 1937, OCLC 220963871 .
  • The application of science to industry in Australia. University of Queensland, Brisbane 1944, OCLC 1058051576 .

literature

Web links

Commons : David Rivett  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alfred Deakin's Family (under Stella ) on deakin.edu.au
  2. ↑ Kenneth Stanley Inglis: Rivett, Rohan Deakin (1917–1977) . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Volume 16. Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 2002, ISBN 0-522-84997-0 (English).
  3. ↑ Rivett, Kenneth Deakin on archives-dev.anu.edu.au
  4. ↑ David Rivett. Fighter for Australian Science on ebooks.publish.csiro.au
  5. ↑ Mount Rivett on geonames.usgs.gov
  6. ^ Rohan Rivett: David Rivett. Fighter for Australian Science. Dominion, North Blackburn 1972, ISBN 978-0-9599109-0-2 , p. 3 ( online , PDF; 13.2 MB)
  7. ↑ Finalists for 1941 on artgallery.nsw.gov.au
  8. ^ The Rivett Medal. New challenges to face in determining recipients. In: CoResearch. CSIRO's staff newspaper. 319, January 1989, pp. 4-5
  9. ↑ Image of the David Rivett Medal (bottom)
  10. ↑ Sir David (Albert Cherbury) Rivett KCMG FRS at portrait.gov.au
  11. ^ Rohan Rivett: David Rivett. Fighter for Australian Science. Dominion, North Blackburn 1972, ISBN 978-0-9599109-0-2 , p. 204 ( online , PDF; 13.2 MB)
  12. ↑ The Names of Canberra at australiaforeveryone.com.au
personal data
SURNAME Rivett, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rivett, Albert Cherbury David (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian chemist and science manager
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Dover , Tasmania , Australia
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1961
Place of death Sydney , New South Wales , Australia