After a few years of research at Philips Electrical Industries U.K., where he led a team studying problems associated with the manufacture of cathode ray tubes, he returned to Australia to take up a post at CSIR in Melbourne as leader of a new Section of Chemical Physics devoted to the application of physical techniques to chemical problems, including protein structure investigations, chemico-physical studies of the solid state, the determination of molecular structure and energetics, and the development of new and improved chemico-physical techniques. In 1958, having grown to a staff of 30 and equipped with X-ray diffraction equipment, a mass spectrometer, an ultra-violet and an infra-red spectrometer, the section became the Chemical Physics Division.