Person
Sullivan, John Vincent (Jack) (1924 - 2013)
- Born
- 1924
Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia - Died
- 2013
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - Occupation
- Physicist
Summary
Jack Sullivan was a physicist whose principal areas of work were in vacuum UV and atomic absorption spectroscopy, particularly sputtered vapours, and lamp development. At the CSIRO Division of Chemical Industry (later Chemical Physics), he was instrumental in the development of sealed hollow-cathode lamps, an essential source of atomic line spectra used in chemical analysis by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The 'boosted output' hollow-cathode lamps he developed with Alan Walsh in 1962 were patented and produced commercially for many years. Sullivan and Walsh also developed the technique of 'selective modulation' and used it to construct 'resonance detectors' which enabled atomic absorption analyses to be carried out without the need for a monochromator. For his research in spectroscopy Sullivan was awarded the David Syme Research Prize. He combined his scientific role in CSIRO with providing technical assistance for international scientific instrument makers. In retirement Sullivan worked as a consultant until 2007.
Details
Chronology
- 1949
- Education - MSc, University of Queensland
- 1950 - 1984
- Career position - Research scientist, CSIRO Division of Chemical Physics
- 1968
- Award - David Syme Research Prize (jointly), University of Melbourne
- 1984
- Life event - Retired
Related entries
Published resources
Journal Articles
- Swingler, A. L.; and Willis, J. B., 'John Vincent Sullivan 1924 - 2013', Australian Physics, 51 (5) (2014), 170. Details
Helen Cohn
Last modified: 16 February 2017