Editors’ page

This issue is rich with science policy, exemplified in two biographical memoirs and another article arising from on-going work on the history of CSIRO. Entomologist Max Day (1915–2017) was an early enthusiast for conservation, representing Australia at international forums and leading the Australian Academy of Science to become involved in concern for the environment as a cross-disciplinary exercise. Botanist and plant ecologist Ralph Slatyer (1929–2012) contributed to environmental studies in Australia and as Australia’s ambassador to UNESCO. He is remembered for his role as Australia’s first chief scientist, when he oversaw the establishment of the Cooperative Research Centres.

Garrett Upstill and Tom Spurling at Swinburne University are leading a project to assemble and analyze material that describes and explains the history of CSIRO. We have already published some of their work: their contribution to this issue concerns the way that organization engaged with Australian industry in the late twentieth century. To some extent this role was forced on them by a requirement that they derive as much as 30% of the funding from non-government sources, and the initiative led to technology transfers, joint ventures and the growth of personal contacts.

There is no doubt that the dominant scientific figure of nineteenth-century Australia was Ferdinand von Mueller. The ‘Mueller project’ has produced several books and many scholarly articles, and in this issue we another one to the lexicon. Putting aside their editorial hats, Ian Rae and Sara Maroske write about the phytochemical laboratory that Mueller established in Melbourne, and the chemists (largely of German origin) whom he engaged to work there. They were often paid as ‘gardeners’ since there was no budget for this activity that Mueller felt was an important adjunct to his role as director of the botanic garden and government botanist for Victoria.

Graeme Cohen follows his book on the people, organizations and institutions of Australian mathematics with a bibliography of Australian mathematics books and pamphlets up to 1960 (more than 550 of them plus 220 theses) with insightful comments on the authors and their intended readerships.

The richness of scholarly interest in history of Australian science is reflected in the articles we publish in this issue, and in the book reviews—written by leading historians and compiled by Peter Hobbins—and the 40th edition of the bibliography of history of Australian science, compiled by Helen Cohn and covering the twelve months to September 2019.