Page "John Paul Wild" Paragraph 15

From London, Wild had obtained an assistant research officer job with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research ( CSIR – precursor to CSIRO ) at the Radiophysics Laboratory near Sydney.

He described the position as " a humble one ": to maintain and develop test equipment.

But within a year he had, as he put it, " wheedled his way " into the new science of radio astronomy, and he described 1948 – 50 as a tremendously exciting time ....

The only two really powerful groups in radio astronomy were the Australian one and Cambridge ; and ... we all thought we had the edge over the Cambridge group.

wartime radio expert Joe Pawsey was the sort of father of radio astronomy in Australia.

He was a wonderfully inspiring leader, very self-effacing and taking no credit for himself, and he was a delight to work under.

And he did something which I appreciated greatly: he left me alone to do my own research but I could come to him at any time and get his advice. This advice, Wild acknowledged, " was often very perceptive, very good ".

Pawsey ’ s approach became a template that Wild would follow.