Joseph Pawsey

Joseph Pawsey
Joe Pawsey as a research physicist in CSIRO
Born	Joseph Lade Pawsey (1908-05-14)14 May 1908 Ararat, Australia
Died	30 November 1962(1962-11-30) (aged 54) Sydney, Australia
Residence	Australia
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Known for	Early leadership of radio astronomy and ionospheric physics, Radio observations of the Sun and Galaxy
Awards	Fellow of the Royal Society Hughes Medal (1960)
Scientific career
Fields	Radio astronomy
Institutions	CSIRO

Joseph Lade Pawsey (14 May 1908 – 30 November 1962) was an Australian scientist, radiophysicist and radio astronomer.

Pawsey was born in Ararat, Victoria to a family of farmers. At the age of 14 he was awarded a government scholarship to study at Wesley College, Melbourne, followed by a scholarship to study at the University of Melbourne. In 1929, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the university, followed by a Master of Science in Natural Philosophy in 1931.

Pawsey was then awarded an Exhibition Research Scholarship to study at Cambridge University, where he worked under the direction of J.A. Ratcliffe. He studied the effects of the ionosphere on radio propagation and his discovery of the presence of irregularities in the Kennelly-Heaviside Layer proved vital to the later development of this branch of ionospheric physics. In 1935, he was awarded a PhD from Cambridge and in September of that year he married Greta Lenore Nicoll, a 32-year-old Canadian.

Pawsey then became a research physicist at EMI until 1939.

In February 1940, Pawsey returned to Australia to work at the recently formed Division of Radiophysics in CSIR (later renamed CSIRO). One group he led developed a microwave set for the Royal Australian Navy while another group under his direction investigated the 'super-refraction' of radio waves in the Earth's atmosphere. Pawsey continued as a research physicist at the Division of Radiophysics until 1962, becoming assistant chief of division in 1952.