The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) is the federal government agency for scientific research in Australia. A precursor to CSIRO, the Advisory Council of Science and Industry, was established in 1916 at the initiative of Prime Minister Billy Hughes. After few years, It was founded in 1926 originally as the Advisory Council of Science and Industry. CSIRO has more than 6500 staff undertaking and assisting research. CSIRO owned the first computer in Australia, CSIRAC, built as part of a project began in the Sydney Radiophysics Laboratory in 1947. The CSIR Mk 1 ran its first program in 1949, the fifth electronic computer in the world. It was over 1000 times faster than the mechanical calculators available at the time. It was decommissioned in 1955 and recommissioned in Melbourne as CSIRAC in 1956 as a general purpose
computing machine used by over 700 projects until 1964. The CSIRAC is the only
surviving first-generation computer in the world. The Research highlights include the invention of atomic absorption spectroscopy, development of the first commercially successful polymer banknote, the invention of the insect repellent in Aerogard and the introduction of a series of biological controls into Australia, such as the introduction of myxomatosis and rabbit calicivirus which causes rabbit haemorrhagic disease for the control of rabbit populations. CSIRO today has expanded into a wider range of scientific inquiry. This expansion began with the establishment of the CSIR to the CSIRO by the Ben Chifley
Labor government in 1949 which enlarged and reconstituted the organisation and its administrative structure
Last Updated on: Nov 25, 2024