John Brooks awarded CSIRO Lifetime Achievement Medal

John Brooks, the Assistant Director and Engineering Manager of the Australia Telescope National Facility, has been awarded a CSIRO Lifetime Achievement Medal for his many contributions to the ATNF. The Lifetime Achievement Medal is a new CSIRO award and was given at a ceremony held in Parliament House, Canberra on 10 December 2002.

John joined CSIRO in 1965. As a young engineer he worked on equipment for the Parkes radio telescope. In 1982 the (then) Director of CSIRO Radiophysics, Bob Frater, had the daunting task of building the Australia Telescope Compact Array. This was an ambitious project, with the aim of building a world-class array with 80 per cent Australian content. Bob selected John Brooks as the man who could make this happen and appointed him as Project Manager. Under John's leadership, this goal was achieved, culminating in the opening of the Compact Array in 1988.

During the last decade, John has had many roles as Assistant Director and Engineering Manager of the ATNF. As Engineering Manager he has ensured that the Compact Array and Parkes radio telescope have continued to provide astronomers with world-class facilities. Over the years, John has built up a network of international linkages through exchange programs and has negotiated and managed millions of dollars worth of contracts involving the telescopes. As Assistant Director, John has become increasingly involved in CSIRO corporate issues, especially in Human Resources and has provided strong support to the Director in maintaining a high level of staff satisfaction within the ATNF. John has always led by example, making the tough decisions when they have to be made, providing guidance and encouragement to staff and always giving credit to colleagues.

For 37 years John has shown what `service to science' means. He leaves the ATNF in February 2003 for long service leave and retirement. He will be greatly missed. We wish John and his family many years of happiness in the next stage of their lives.

CSIRO medal for ATNF and CTIP staff

Several ATNF and CSIRO Telecommunications and Industrial Physics staff were also honoured at the CSIRO annual awards on 10 December 2002. The ATNF/CTIP MMIC team, John Archer, Mal Sinclair, Russell Gough, Paul Roberts and Oya Sevimli, was honoured with a Medal for Scientific Achievement for their work in designing advanced indium phosphide Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICS) for radio astronomy and telecommun-ications. The MMIC project was funded under the CSIRO Executive Special Projects program, initiated in 1987 by Dr Malcolm McIntosh. The circuit designs were developed within ATNF and CTIP and fabricated in the USA by a foundry of TRW. The design of the MMICs had to be proven to have practical applications. For this, Henry Kanoniuk's work on the package design, assembly and testing of the final devices was critical. His unique technical expertise and finesse ensured high quality and reliable assemblies. The indium phosphide MMICs are internationally recognized as setting new performance benchmarks at millimeter-wave frequencies and are an essential component in the millimeter receivers for the high-frequency upgrade of the Compact Array.

Jessica Chapman, Helen Sim
(Jessica.Chapman@csiro.au)