Biographical entry Steel, William Howard (Beattie) (1920 - 2004)

Summary

Beattie Steel worked on optical munitions design for the Optical Munitions Panel and became an international expert in interferometry. Beattie Steel was the first chairman of the Australian Optical Society and served as president of the International Commission for Optics.

Details

Events

1940s

Career position - Australasian Wireless Association

1940

Education - Mathematics and Physics studies at the University of Melbourne

c. 1945 - 1985

Career position - Joined the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) National Standards Laboratory

1953

Education - Awarded Physics Doctorate from Sorbonne University, Paris France

1972 - 1975

Career position - President of the International Commission for Optics

1983

Chair - First chairperson of the Australian Optical Society

1985

Award - Received the Mees Medal of the Optical Society of America

1986 -

Career position - Honorary Professorial Fellow at Macquarie University

2004

Award (posthumous) - Highest Award from the Australian Optical Society renamed 'The Australian Optical Society W. H. (Beattie) Steel Medal'.

Related entries

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science Exhibitions

• The Giant's Eye: the Optical Munitions Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/omp/omp.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Steel, W. H., 'Optics in Australia', Australian Physicist, vol. 24, 1987, pp. 242-245. Details

Online Resources

• 'STEEL, Dr William Howard 'Beattie' (1920 - 2004)', in Heritage Guide to The Geelong College, Lannan, Con, The Geelong College, http://gnet.geelongcollege.vic.edu.au:8080/wiki/STEEL-William-Howard-Beattie-1920-2004.ashx. Details
• 'International Honours', Ad-Astra The Geelong College Newsletter, no. 54, 1985, p. 3, http://gnet.geelongcollege.vic.edu.au:8080/wiki/GetFile.aspx?File=%2fAd_Astra_No_54_December_1985_reduced.pdf. Details
• 'Steel, W.H.', in The Giant's Eye: the Optical Munitions Exhibition, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/omp/people/steel.htm. Details
• 'Obituaries', Ad-Astra The Geelong College Newsletter, no. 107, 2005, p. 29, https://issuu.com/geelongcollege/docs/ad_astra_no_107_january_2005_reduce. Details
• 'Steel, W H (1920-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1294115. Details

See also

• Piddington, John Hobart, 'Ronald Gordon Giovanelli 1915-84', Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. 6, no. 2, 1985, pp. 223-236. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9850620223.htm. Details