Friday 4 August at 7.30pm
Burnside City Uniting Church, 384 Portrush Rd Tusmore
SIR CHARLES TODD – Fifty Years of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Leadership
Mac Beney
Sir Charles Todd was a major contributor to Australia’s scientific and technological foundations. In his 49 years of public service (1856-1905), he made major contributions to colonial astronomy, meteorology, telegraphy, electrical engineering, spatial systems and the postal system. He was an intellectual giant and a pioneer corporate leader.
Todd most likely holds the record of Australia’s longest serving senior public servant. His career is a metaphor for the development of science, technology and government administration that underpinned the federation of Australia’s colonies.
About the Speaker: Mac Beney is a retired university lecturer and I.T. professional in industry and the State public service. For the past 18 years he’s been running a volunteer citizen science project at the Weather Bureau, rescuing South Australia’s climate history going back to September 1836. The starting point for this work was the 12,000 pages of the weather journals kept by Sir Charles Todd. A query from one of Todd’s descendants led to a parallel citizen history project, investigating the full extent of Todd’s work in STEM, most of it never before documented.