ATSE, CAETS AND THE ROLE OF ENGINEERING ACADEMIES IN

ADDRESSING GLOBAL ISSUES

Presented at the

Cape Induction Dinner,

of the

South African Academy of Engineering (SAAE)

Cape Town , South Africa , 12 September 2006

by

John W Zillman AO FAA FTSE

(President, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE))

It is a great pleasure to be able to join so many SAAE Fellows and guests at this dinner and I am honoured to have been invited to speak to you tonight.

May I first congratulate you, Mr President, on the great work that SAAE is doing and on your progress towards membership of the International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences (CAETS)

As the soon-to-be Past President of your closest neighbour engineering academy – certainly latitude-wise and I would like to think also in spirit – I hoped it might be of interest if I told you a little about the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE). And as the already Past President of CAETS – at whose annual meetings I have had the great pleasure of working with Bob St Leger over recent years – I would like to share with you a few thoughts on the value of active involvement in CAETS and the role that our individual academies can play, nationally and internationally, in addressing such important global challenges as the stewardship of the oceans, achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and averting dangerous human-induced climate change and; as well, of course, as focussing on such critical underpinning needs as the quality of engineering education and the opportunities available to the engineering profession to contribute to public policy at the national and global levels.

Let me begin by telling you a little about ATSE and the issues it has faced over the past 30 years. The Academy had its origins in pressure amongst the research directors of a number of Australian government and industry organisations (known as the Australian Industrial Research Group (AIRG)) during the 1960s for creation of an “applied science” division of the Australian Academy of Science which had been established by Royal Charter in 1954 with election to its Fellowship based solely on personal achievement in scientific research. It was felt that some mechanism was needed for recognition and involvement of those whose achievement lay not so much in fundamental research as in the practical development and application of scientific, technological and engineering capability in the national interest.

To cut a long story short, the Australian Academy of Science did not accept the proposal for an applied science division but it has lent its strong support for the establishment of a separate academy for the applied sciences and engineering. And so the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences (ATS) was born at a gala dinner in Melbourne on 24 February 1976 at which the main address was given by the Foundation President of the Australian Academy of Science and, by then, Governor of South Australia, Sir Mark Oliphant. There had been much discussion about the title of the new academy and eventually it was agreed that it should be the “ Academy of Technological Sciences” which was seen as embracing the applied physical and biological sciences and engineering. The Foundation President of ATS was Sir Ian McLennan, an engineer and the Chairman of BHP Ltd, Australia’s largest mining company.

The early years of the ATS were extremely active as it grew from 65 Foundation Fellows in 1976 to some 315 by 1990 and carried out a number of major studies for government on issues such as Australian space policy and the development of high technology enterprises and also produced a mammoth “Bicentennial History of Technology in Australia 1788-1988”. It also began a long series of Annual Invitation Symposia on the resources of Australia, established a staffed Headquarters Office (now Sir Ian McLennan House) in Melbourne and, with the support of a modest grant from the Federal Government, began a series of routine publications including the Academy’s (now) annual Handbook.

Notwithstanding the strong engineering representation in the Fellowship of the Academy in its early years, pressure began to emerge in the ranks of the Institution of Engineers Australia (IEAust) during the early 1980s for establishment of a separate Australian Academy of Engineering. Through the influence of several key figures on the Australian engineering scene, who were both members of the IEAust and Fellows of the Academy, the establishment of a second engineering academy was averted and a set of understandings developed, recorded in a Concordat, with the purpose of strengthening the engineering representation and profile of ATS. The words “and Engineering” were added to the title of “Academy of Technological Sciences” in 1987, albeit with retention of the abbreviation ATS and Fellowship post-nominal FTS, and, in 1993, a former President of IEAust was made Chairman of the Academy’s Membership Committee. The explicit recognition of the engineering focus of the Academy was completed in October 1995 with the change from ATS to ATSE as the Academy’s abbreviation and the adoption of FTSE (notwithstanding its UK Financial Market connotations !!) as the Fellowship post-nominal.

Following a wide-ranging review of its operations in the late 1980s, the Academy greatly expanded its work during the 1990s with a major emphasis on nationally significant projects in areas such as climate change, water resources, industry competitiveness, urban air pollution and pesticide use in Australia. It established the highly successful ATSE Crawford Fund for International Agricultural Research and took the former Sir Ian Clunies Ross (founder of CSIRO) Memorial Foundation under its wing as the ATSE Clunies Ross Foundation which is now going from strength to strength as a mechanism for recognition of excellence in Australian applied science and in the promotion of scientific and engineering careers for the brightest students in their high school years.

ATSE works closely with Australia’s other learned academies through the National Academies Forum (NAF) and with the IEAust (now Engineers Australia) under the terms of a five-yearly updated MOU as a successor to the Concordat. The Presidents of both science academies and Engineers Australia serve together on the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) and I think it can be claimed that we have had a major positive influence on many aspects of Australian Government policy, planning and funds allocation including the recent government decision to establish an intercontinental air transport system to Antarctica. Our Fellows serve as State Governors and Chief Scientists in several Australian States and one of our former Councillors has recently been appointed as Australian Chief Scientist. His predecessor as Chief Scientist (an engineer, Dr Robin Batterham) will be my successor as President of ATSE from 1 January 2007.

Late last year, we published a little book ‘ATSE 1975-2005: the First 30 Years’ which provides a brief summary of our history and some interesting background on our planning and operation as well as a comprehensive listing of our Council and Office bearers including our six Presidents (5 engineers and 1 meteorologist (the aberration being me!)). It also provides an overview of ATSE’s extensive international connections, which are strongly supported by special funding from government, both bilaterally and through multilateral mechanisms such as CAETS.

In terms of ATSE’s bilateral relations, I am pleased to be able to recall that the first international function I was called on to perform after I became President of the Academy was to open the joint ATSE-SAAE Workshop on Water Resources Management at Kilmore, Victoria, Australia on 1-3 April 2003. That excellent Workshop at which I was pleased to welcome the 11-member South African delegation led by Dr Thinus Basson, followed the initial visit of Dr Bingle Kruger to Australia for our Annual General Meeting and Symposium in Perth in November 1998 and ATSE participation in the highly successful conference on “Public-Private Partnerships for 2000 and Beyond” held in Pretoria in November 1999. The Proceedings of the Water Resource Management Workshop were published by your Water Research Commission in July 2004 and represent a much-referenced record of definitive presentations on an issue of intense joint concern to South Africa and Australia.

I would now like to say a little about CAETS and the actual and potential role of CAETS member academies in addressing the major global issues of our time.

ATSE (as ATS) was one of the five founding academies of CAETS in 1978 and has hosted three of its sixteen (now) biennial Convocations:

• The management of technological change ( Melbourne, 1980)
• Technology for living at the frontiers ( Sydney, 1988)
• Oceans and the world’s future ( Cairns, 2005).

CAETS operates as a non-governmental non-profit organisation incorporated in the District of Columbia (US) with a membership (now 24) of those national academies of engineering and technological sciences which have satisfied an agreed set of criteria, been reviewed by a visiting committee and formally admitted to membership. The CAETS mission is to foster effective engineering and technological progress for the benefit of societies of all countries. It is governed by the annually-meeting Council consisting of nominated representatives (usually the Presidents) of its members, along with a rotationally elected 8-member Board of Directors with an Executive Committee consisting of the President, Past President, President-elect and Secretary-Treasurer. Presidency is for a term of one calendar year and it falls to the President’s academy to host the annual meetings of the Council and Board of Directors, and the Convocation in every second year.

The annual Council meetings frequently include observers from CAETS sister organisations and from non-CAETS academies who are preparing for application for membership. It has been a great pleasure to meet with Bob St Leger at recent Council meetings and to discuss SAAE’s preparations for membership of CAETS. I greatly look forward to being present on the occasion of your admission.

At the meeting of CAETS in Stavanger, Norway, in May 2004, the Council resolved to develop a five year strategy for a more pro-active role for both CAETS itself and its member academies in addressing important global issues. At its Sixteenth Convocation in Cairns in July 2005, the Council adopted a strategy with four main priorities:

• Engagement with the United Nations Specialised Agencies and related international organisations;
• Fostering and strengthening National Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences;
• Convocations, Symposia and Reports – Support for Member Academy Initiatives; and
• Addressing issues of common concern of the Member Academies;

and the Board, Executive and two special Committees established in Cairns are now proceeding vigorously with implementation of the Strategy.

I think it is fair to say that the greatest progress so far has been achieved with our first priority. We have established working relationships with UNESCO, WMO (World Meteorological Organization) and a number of other UN system agencies and programs, contributed to their activities, particularly in their sessions and, most importantly, provided guidance to assist member academies to contribute briefing on engineering and applied science matters to their national delegations to sessions of the UN bodies.

CAETS has also reached out to its non-governmental partners, especially the International Council for Science (ICSU) with which it is cooperating on a study of renewable energy and the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) with which we are in the final stages of concluding a formal MOU. One particular initiative that I would like to mention was a joint statement signed by the Presidents of 11 peak scientific, technological and engineering organisations including CAETS, WFEO, ICSU and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) and directed to Heads of State and Government meeting at the UN General Assembly in September 2005 on “Science, technology and innovation for achieving UN Millennium Development Goals”.

I believe it is through leverage mechanisms such as this that our national academies can contribute greatly to the wise handling of critical global issues. In 1994, ATSE produced a comprehensive, expert, objective assessment of the science of climate change which was tabled by the Australian Government Minister and distributed to all national delegations attending the first session of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) in Berlin; and each of our CAETS member academies has produced reports on a wide range of issues of global significance which, when shared through the CAETS network, are inserted into national as well as international fora, and enable us to draw effectively on the expertise of the engineering academies of the world.

The 2005 CAETS Convocation in Cairns produced a comprehensive CAETS Statement, with ten specific recommendations, on “Oceans and the world’s future” which member academies inserted into their national government systems and which was forwarded by the CAETS President to all of the key UN system organisations responsible for the oceans for distribution to national delegations attending their sessions.

At our most recent meeting of the CAETS Council in Brussels in June this year, we approved a CAETS Statement on the role of hydrogen in future global energy strategies and this similarly will be used by CAETS and its member academies to influence the global debate and strategy development.

I think we can reasonably claim that the voice of CAETS and its member academies has begun to be heard on many important global issues.

I believe that across the spectrum of critical global and national issues, engineering academies have much to contribute to the common good. I congratulate SAAE on the role you are playing within South Africa and I strongly encourage your newly elected Fellows to play the vital part that you can play in ensuring the strength and integrity of the SAAE role on the South African scene.

Finally may I thank you for the privilege of speaking to you tonight, pledge the closest possible cooperation and assistance from ATSE and express my delight at the progress SAAE is achieving both on the national scene, here in South Africa, and in your preparations for becoming a member of the global family of engineering academies under the auspices of CAETS.