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Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

The '''Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation''' ('''CSIRO''') is the national government body for scientific research in Australia. It was founded in 1926 originally as the Advisory Council of Science and Industry. Research highlights include the invention of atomic absorption spectroscopy, development of the first polymer banknote, invention of the insect repellent in Aerogard, and the introduction of a series of biological controls into Australia, such as the introduction of Myxomatosis and Rabbit calicivirus which causes rabbit haemorrhagic disease for the control of rabbit populations. CSIRO's research into ICT technologies has resulted in advances such as the Panoptic Search EngineFunnelback Home Page (now known as Funnelback) and AnnodexCeNTIE Home Page. Recently, the CSIRO has been actively defending its patent for the use of wireless technologies which are a standard for many modern day laptops. A class action has been filed by US corporations Microsoft, Apple Inc.|Apple and Dell to renege on paying royalties on the wireless patent filed by the CSIRO in 1996. In October 2005 the journal Nature (journal)|''Nature'' announced that CSIRO scientists had developed near-perfect rubber from resilin, the elastic protein which gives fleas their jumping ability and helps insects fly. on 19 August, 2005, CSIRO and UTD (University of Dallas, Texas) announced they were able to make transparent carbon nanotube sheets that will bring carbon nanotube products to the masses.

Research groups and initiatives

Employing over 6600 staff, the CSIRO maintains more than 50 sites across Australia and biological control research stations in France and Mexico. The primary roles of the CSIRO include contributing to meeting the objectives and responsibilities of the Australian Federal Government and providing new ways to benefit the Australian community and the economic and social performance of a number of industry sectors through research and development. Research undertaken by the CSIRO is divided into 16 operational 'Divisions'. These are:
- Australia Telescope National Facility: Go to ANTF Homepage
- Energy Technology
- Entomology
- Exploration & Mining
- ICT Centre
- Industrial Physics (defunct)
- Land and Water
- Livestock Industries
- Manufacturing and Materials Technology (defunct)
- CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research|Marine and Atmospheric Research
- Materials Science and Engineering
- Mathematics and Information Sciences
- CSIRO Minerals|Minerals
- Molecular and Health Technologies
- Petroleum Resources
- Plant Industry
- Sustainable Ecosystems
- Textiles and Fibre Technologies In 2007, the divisions of Industrial Physics and Manufacturing and Materials Technology merged to form a new division, Materials Science and Engineering. In addition, CSIRO is a participant in a number of joint ventures, including:
- Ensis - forestry and forest products, with New Zealand's Forestry research organisation named Scion
- Food Science Australia - with the Victorian Government
- The Australian e-Health Research Centre - with the Queensland Government

"Flagship" initiative

The CSIRO "Flagship" initiative was designed to integrate, focus and direct national scientific resources. In May 2005, the government announced the launch of CSIRO's million Flagship Collaboration Fund, which is intended to encourage cooperative research between universities, CSIRO and other research agencies. , the CSIRO supported the following 9 "Flagships"CSIRO Flagships website:
- Climate Adaptation
- Energy Transformed
- Food Futures
- Light Metals
- Minerals Down Under
- Niche Manufacturing
- Preventative Health
- Water for a Healthy Country
- Wealth from Oceans In April 2007, funding for a new Flagship was announced by the Federal governmentCSIRO to help adapt to climate change (Media Release). It will be investigating the effects of Climate Change.

The Air Quality Modelling and Dispersion Team

CSIRO's Air Quality Modelling and Dispersion TeamAir Quality Modelling and Dispersion Team is a part of the Marine and Atmospheric Research division. Some of the widely used Atmospheric dispersion modeling|air quality dispersion models* www.air-dispersion.com developed by CSIRO are:
- TAPMTAPM documentation (see description in Compilation of atmospheric dispersion models)
- LADMLADM documentation (see description in Compilation of atmospheric dispersion models)
- AUSPLUMEAUSPLUME brief summary (scroll down beneath slide)
- AUSPUFFAUSPUFF brief summary (scroll down beneath slide) (see description in Compilation of atmospheric dispersion models)
- DISPMODDISPMOD brief summary (scroll down beneath slide) (see description in Compilation of atmospheric dispersion models) The "Australian Air Quality Forecasting System" is provided jointly by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO. The Bureau of Meteorology generates the high resolution weather forecasts and CSIRO has created computer models to calculate pollution levels.

History

A precursor to the CSIRO, the Advisory Council of Science and Industry, was established in 1916 at the initiative of Prime Minister Billy Hughes. However, the Advisory Council struggled with insufficient funding during the First World War. In 1920 the Council was renamed the "Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry", and was led by George Handley Knibbs (1921-26), but continued to struggle financially. In 1926 ''The Science and Industry Research Act'' replaced the Institute with the 'Council for Scientific and Industrial Research' (CSIR). The CSIR was structured to represent the federal structure of Australian government, and had state-level committees and a central council. As well as this improved structure, the CSIR benefited from strong bureaucratic management under George Julius, David Rivett, and Arnold Richardson. CSIR research focussed on primary and secondary industries. Early in its existence, it established divisions studying animal health and animal nutrition. After the depression, the CSIR extended into secondary industries such as manufacturing. Notable inventions and breakthroughs by the CSIRO include:
- Use of myxomatosis and calicivirus to control rabbit numbers
- Atomic absorption spectroscopy
- Construction of 'The Dish' - Parkes Observatory|Parkes Radio Telescope
- Aerogard, insect repellent
- Softly, fabric softner
- Microwave landing system, a microwave approach and landing system for aircraft
- Gene shears
- Biological control of Salvinia
- Polymer banknote
- Relenza flu drug
- X-ray phase contrast imaging
- Wireless LAN The CSIRO today has expanded into a wider range of scientific inquiry. This expansion began with the establishment of the CSIRO in 1949 which, as well as a name change, reconstituted the organisation and its administrative structure. Under Ian Clunies Ross as chairman, the CSIRO pursued new areas such as radioastronomy and industrial chemistry.

Historic research

The CSIRO owned the first computer in Australia, CSIRAC, built as part of a project began in the Sydney Radiophysics Laboratory in 1947. The CSIRO Mk 1 ran its first program in 1949, the fifth electronic computer in the world. It was over 1000 times faster than the mechanical calculators available at the time. It was decommissioned in 1955 and recommissioned in Melbourne as CSIRAC in 1956 as a general purpose computing machine used by over 700 projects until 1964. The CSIRAC is the only functioning first-generation computer in the world today.

Domain name

The CSIRO was the first Australian organisation to start using the internet, and as such was free to register the second-level domain csiro.au (as opposed to csiro.org.au or csiro.com.au). Guidelines were introduced in 1996 to regulate the use of the .au domain.

Chief Executives

Recent controversies

Diet book

In 2005 the organisation also gained worldwide attention (and criticism) for publishing and promoting the ''Total Wellbeing Diet'' bookhttp://www.csiro.au/csiro/channel/pchaj,,.html Total Wellbeing Diet which features a high-protein, low-carbohydrate dieting|diet. The book has sold over half a million copies in Australia and over 100,000 overseas but was criticised in an editorial by ''Nature (journal)|Nature'' for giving scientific credence to a "fashionable" diet book sponsored by meat and dairy industries.

Job cuts

In 2006 CSIRO was again in the news, this time with reports that they were struggling with reduced funding and job cuts. It was reported that the organisation was increasingly affected by political processes as claims of gags on scientists on the topic of global warming emerged. The Australian Labor Party|Labor Party attempted to open a Australian Senate|Senate enquiry into the matter but it was rejected by the Government.

802.11 patent

In 2007 the adoption of the 802.11n wireless networking standard was held up when CSIRO refused to provide IEEE a Letter of Assurance to not sue over patent violations.. In late November 2007, CSIRO won a lawsuit against Buffalo Technology, with an injunction that Buffalo must stop supplying AirStation products that infringe on the 802.11 patent. On September 19, 2008, the Federal Circuit ruled in Buffalo’s favor and has remanded this case to the district court ruling that the district court’s Summary Judgment was insufficient on the merits of obviousness of CSIRO’s patent. Therefore, this case will be tried again before the district court. In this connection Buffalo is hopeful that it will shortly be permitted to, once again, sell IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g compliant products in the United States.

References

External sources

Currie, George; Graham, John, ''The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901-1926'', CSIRO, Melbourne, 1966

External links

- CSIRO Webpage
- History of CSIRO
- Patent Suit
- CSIRO Publishing Category:Scientific institutions Category:Science and technology in Australia Category:Air dispersion modeling Category:Government entities of Australia Category:Research institutes in Australia

Related Images

- CSIRO Darwin

Sources: StartLearningNow, Wikipedia | Usage license: GNU FDL

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