



CSIRO scientist made the most of inventive streak




10-8-1925 - 6-1-2010

IN HIS job as a CSIRO scientist, Alan Head, who has died aged 85, spent a lot of time by himself with 2B pencils, a pile of paper, a computer and his feet up on the desk, thinking. A lot of those thoughts came to fruition. He invented a type of radio telescope and a novel system of refrigeration.

Alan's family moved back to Melbourne from Bairnsdale, where he was born, to take over a Toorak newsagency, but his father died when he was seven, leaving his mother to carry on the business by herself.

Alan was sent to Ballarat Grammar School , being dux in 1940. He moved to Scotch College to do his two honours years and was dux in 1942. His formal undergraduate education was completed by a BA in mathematics in 1945 and a BSc in physics in 1946, both at the Melbourne University.

In 1948 he joined the then CSIR as research officer in the division of aeronautics just before the division became the Aeronautical Research Laboratory under the former Supply Department.

In 1951, he married Gwen Barlow. Soon afterwards he gained a studentship to study at Bristol University and the couple left for England. He obtained his PhD in 1954 for a thesis entitled Dislocations and Boundaries and the Growth of Fatigue Cracks.

On his return, he rejoined ARL to work on deformation, fatigue and fracture of the alloys used in aircraft. During this time, Alan received a query from the CSIRO division of radio physics concerning the suitability of aviation alloys in the construction of a very large radio telescope dish. Alan could see that, despite the strength and weight of the alloys, the dish would distort under gravity as it was tilted from one viewing position to another.

He suggested the dish be non-steerable and assembled in a hole in the ground so that it could be fully supported and adjusted to precisely the correct shape. He then calculated the complex shape of the moveable receiving sensor at the focus of the telescope to scan the sky. Four telescopes of this design were built and successfully operated in the Soviet Union.

In 1957, Alan left ARL and took up a position as a theoretical physicist with the CSIRO division of tribophysics to work on the physics of materials. He stayed with the CSIRO for the rest of his career and was chief research scientist for some 22 years.

Although his main research was in materials science, there were exceptions. One was the invention of a refrigeration device. Apparently this came to him as he and Gwen were travelling in Queensland with ripe tomatoes in the boot of the car.

The device consisted of a surface coated with a substance that selectively radiated electromagnetic radiation at an infra-red wavelength of about 10 microns. This wavelength can penetrate the atmosphere, if it is cloud free, and escape into deep space. Thus the device tries to equalise its temperature with outer space (about minus 273 degrees) and cools down. Patents were taken out but so far there have been no commercial applications.

Alan is survived by his wife, Gwen, his brother, Keith, and his sisters, Margaret Boston and Sybil Kent.

Compiled by Keith Head and former colleagues Leo Clarebrough and Peter Humble.

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