Influential scientist and DSIR chief
Eddie Robertson had just arrived at Scott Base in Antarctica on October 25, 1957, to see how the research for the NZ International Geophysical Year (IGY) Antarctic Expedition was progressing and was chatting to other expedition members in the messroom after dinner.
Slowly the others left, until only one remained. ‘‘Who are you?’’ asked Eddie, still chatting away. ‘‘I’m the night watchman,’’ was the reply. Eddie liked to talk (and listen) and it’s light for 24 hours a day in Antarctica in summer.
Dr Edwin Ian Robertson, who has died aged 103, was one of the most influential people in New Zealand science from 1951 to 1980.
In 1951 he was selected as the first director of the geophysics division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) that was set up to amalgamate various smaller independent groups, all working in different, but complementary, aspects of geophysics. This was a challenging task for someone who had spent just three years in the DSIR but led to the strong geophysical capability we have in New Zealand today.
He was born in Petone in 1919 and educated at Victoria University, graduating in 1940 with an MSc with firstclass honours, and was awarded a Shirtcliffe Fellowship for studies overseas. War service intervened in his academic career and he joined the DSIR in late 1940, being seconded to the Royal New Zealand Navy for degaussing ships in Auckland until late 1945.
He married Star in 1941 and lived in Devonport, where their first daughter, Helen, was born that year. After the war, in late 1945, he travelled to London to take up his fellowship to study for a doctorate at London University under Professor J Bruckshaw. The fellowship was insufficient to support him, so Star followed him and taught at schools in London until their return to New Zealand in 1947 (Star) and 1948 (Eddie).
Helen, aged 4 when they left, stayed in New Zealand with her grandmother until her mother’s return. Their second daughter, Carol, was born in Wellington in 1950.
Robertson was devoted to his family, and his children had a happy, carefree life in Tı¯tahi Bay, where they lived until 1960. He was a wonderful father, grandfather and great-grandfather. During a road trip down the west coast of the North Island in 2006 with his oldest grandson and greatgrandson, the trio abseiled into the Lost World at Waitomo. At the time he was the oldest person to have done it.
After retiring, he actively supported the community centre at Tawa and was a regular attendee at U3A and Probus meetings. He also travelled extensively in retirement, with a trip to northern India, four trips to South America (from Buenos Aires, Argentina, down the east side of the continent to Tierra Del Fuego, and up the west coast to Santiago, Chile). This was followed by a trip with Helen and Carol to northern Italy in 2007, and Tasmania in 2011.
In London, Robertson was awarded a DIC (Diploma from Imperial College) in applied geophysics in 1947 and a PhD in geophysics in 1948 (the first PhD in geophysics to be awarded to a New Zealander).
Although initially planning to enter the oil industry, he was recruited while in London by Dr Ernest Marsden to join the NZ Geological Survey within the DSIR, with the enticement of funding for stateof-art geophysical field instruments.
At NZGS he developed a strong exploration geophysics team, focusing on studies of the central North Island for geothermal resources and continuing investigations for hydroelectric schemes. In particular, he initiated gravity studies both local and regional, setting up the nationwide gravity base network.
In 1954, the International Geophysical Year (IGY, 1957-58), an important programme for international science, was proposed. Robertson was appointed to the Royal Society of New Zealand’s National IGY Committee and attended the preliminary IGY meeting in Rome in 1954.
As most research covered in the proposed NZ IGY programme was being done by the DSIR’s Geophysics Division and NZ Meteorological Office, the detailed work plan for New Zealand’s contribution to IGY and its implementation (1956-59) were developed by the two, led by Robertson.
Within this role of organising the NZ IGY programme, which extended from the Equator to Antarctica, he was responsible for the NZ IGY Antarctic Expedition, led by Dr Trevor Hatherton, to Scott Base and the joint IGY base with the US at Hallett Station. In 1957 he visited both Scott Base and Hallett Station to check on the scientific programmes.
With the departure of New Zealand’s Transantarctic Expedition (TAE) early in 1958, Robertson, as director of the Geophysics Division, was responsible for the operation of Scott Base until the DSIR
set up a separate Antarctic Division in 1959.
He chaired the Ross Dependency Research Committee that developed the New Zealand Antarctic Research programme and led the NZ National Committee for Antarctic Research from 1958 to 1970.
He was the inaugural NZ delegate to the ICSU SCAR (Special Committee on Antarctic Research), continuing in this role until 1962, and represented NZ at the first meetings of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Member Countries (1961-72). He returned to Scott Base in 1982 for the 25th anniversary of the construction of the base. Mt Robertson, just south of Hallett Bay, is named for him.
After IGY, Eddie continued to make significant contributions to NZ science, focusing largely on gravity studies in NZ and the South Pacific.
However, in 1964 he was appointed assistant director-general of the DSIR, moving into more of a science strategy/ management role, subsequently becoming director-general (1971-80), responsible for the efficient running of some and then all the various divisions of DSIR and associated research associations.
As director-general he was keen on a ‘‘New Zealand Inc’’ approach to research – the close co-operation between the DSIR, the universities and industry on research for the national benefit. He served under four ministers and was acknowledged by government ministers as a leading administrator.
In addition to his work in the DSIR, in 1955 he was appointed scientific adviser to the navy, a role which expanded in 1960 to include the Ministry of Defence until his retirement in 1980.
He also contributed to a wide range of other activities, both before and after retirement, including the NZ Futures Trust, Commission for the Future 1977-82, National Research Advisory Council, New Zealand Energy Research and Development Committee, Commonwealth Science Council including on the Executive (1971-80), University Scholarships Committee, University Research Committee, Medical Research Council, VUW Council (1983-89) and the Cawthron Institute.
He served on two commissions of inquiry (into acclimatisation in the Auckland region, which he chaired, in 1981, and into air traffic control services in 1982), and provided science policy and other science advice under the NZ Aid programmes to Malaya, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mexico and Jordan.
He was awarded an OBE in 1963, the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, and a CBE in 1981, all for services to science. In 1963 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ. In 2019 he was guest of honour at its academy’s 100th anniversary dinner at Te Papa, being the oldest surviving fellow and incidentally aged 100 at the same time.
After retiring, he briefly returned to research publishing in 1987 with papers on gravity surveys in the South Pacific islands. Finally – in a typical scientist ‘‘bottom drawer’’ job – he completed the write-up of a gravity interpretation of the basement structure underlying the Tongariro National Park, on which all his observations, models and interpretations had been made decades earlier.
It was published in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics in 2018, when Robertson was 99.
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