Philip Baxter

John Philip Baxter was born in Machynlleth in Wales on 7 May 1905, the younger child of John Baxter and his wife Mary Netta Morton. He had an older sister, Muriel. His father was a telegraphist with the British General Post Office, as was his mother before her marriage. The family moved to Hereford in England, where he attended Hereford High School for Boys. under the supervision of F. H. Burstall. ==Imperial Chemical Industries==

A recommendation from Burstall helped Baxter secure a research engineer position with Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in Billingham, where a new chemical factory had been established to make sodium hydroxide. Here he met Lilian May Thatcher, who worked as a stenographer in nearby Stockton-on-Tees. The two became engaged, but before they could marry, Alexander Fleck had Baxter transferred to ICI's new General Chemicals Division in Widnes as head of the Central Laboratory. Baxter and Lilian were married in the register office in Stockton-on-Tees on 17 August 1931. Three years later they designed and built their own home in Farnworth, where they lived until 1949. They had four children: a daughter, Valerie; an adopted son, Peter; and sons Denis and Roderick. The Central Laboratory's focus at this time was on the chemistry of chlorine and fluorine. Electrolysis of salt water produced chlorine and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), but there was not as much demand for the chlorine, so ICI was eager to create new products using chlorine that it could sell. New products that were created included various solvents, chlorinated rubber, and Lindane, an insecticide developed in collaboration with ICI's Agricultural Research Station at Jealott's Hill. Baxter personally received a number of patents for his work. He became Research Manager of the General Chemicals Division in 1935. He reorganised the Central Laboratory into seven sections, each with its own Assistant Research Manager, an organisational structure known as "Baxter and the seven dwarves", which was not generally considered a success at the time. In addition to his scientific work, Baxter was involved in local politics. He was elected to the Widnes Municipal Council in 1939, a seat he held until 1949. He was leader of the Conservative Party in the Council, and chairman of the local party organisation in the Widnes UK Parliament constituency. ==Tube Alloys==

In 1940, with Britain at war during the Second World War, Baxter was approached by physicist James Chadwick, who asked if he could supply a sample of uranium hexafluoride. Baxter returned to Widnes as Research Director of the General Chemicals Division after the war ended in 1945. He became a director of Thorium Ltd, a company half owned by ICI that was involved in the production of radioactive substances, and was a consultant to the British nuclear energy program. His General Chemicals Division at Widnes was involved in chemical separation of uranium products, which he considered a patriotic duty. Baxter was personally responsible for the research and development that was the basis for the design of the Springfields uranium hexafluoride plant, and was a member of the committee that oversaw the construction of the chemical separation plant to extract plutonium. Much to Baxter's disappointment, ICI management did not see nuclear energy as being part of its core mission, and disengaged from it. He also became dismayed at political and economic developments in the United Kingdom after the Conservatives lost office in 1945. ==University of New South Wales==

. In 1949, Baxter heard that the New South Wales University of Technology was looking for a professor of chemical engineering. He applied, and was offered the job. Baxter and his family packed their belongings and sailed to Australia on the ocean liner Orcades, arriving in Sydney on 16 January 1950. They bought a house in Enfield, where Baxter would reside for the rest of his life. At the time the university was located in temporary accommodation on the grounds of the Sydney Technical College campus in Ultimo. Baxter became the head of a new School of Chemical Engineering that was created on his arrival, but he initially had only one full-time staff member as most of the instruction was carried out by part-time staff. Although he had no previous teaching experience, he turned out to be a good, well-organised lecturer, and he worked closely with his first postgraduate students, whose research was into fields that Baxter had been involved with in England. Baxter's biggest clashes with academic staff were over governance issues. He had a preference for industry-style organisation, with clear lines of authority. In 1957, he created a committee of deans, chaired by himself, that met every Wednesday. This became the vice-chancellor's advisory committee in 1960. Through this he created an administrative mechanism which set the university free from the traditional constraints. He did away with the election of deans by the faculty, replacing it with one in which deans were appointed by the University Council on his recommendation. This provided for more efficient administration, but violated the academic tradition of a dean being primus inter pares among academic colleagues. This aroused the ire of academic staff, and in the end a compromise was reached whereby each faculty elected a chairman who was responsible for academic matters, while the council appointed a dean who was in charge of administrative matters. This proved to be quite successful, and was retained by Baxter's successors. His successor, Rupert Myers, declared that: "History will show Sir Philip Baxter to have been a great educational administrator who built a fine university and made many beneficial changes in the ways universities handled their business and interacted with governments and the community." ==Atomic knight==

On 19 August 1949, the Australian government created the Industrial Atomic Energy Policy Committee, chaired by Mark Oliphant and with Baxter as a member, to advise government on the development of nuclear power in Australia. On the committee's own recommendation, it was superseded by the Atomic Energy Policy Committee in April 1952. This in turn was replaced by the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC) in November. The AAEC was run by a three commissioners, with Jack Stevens as chairman, Baxter as vice-chairman and Hugh Murray from the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company as the third member. Baxter succeeded Stevens as chairman in 1957. He worked part-time, spending Fridays at the AAEC until he retired from the UNSW in 1969. Thereafter he was full-time, until he retired from the AAEC on 15 April 1972. Construction began at Lucas Heights in October 1955, and was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Civil Division in the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours on 12 June 1965. ==Arts and legacy==

Baxter had been a member of the drama group in Stockton-on-Tees, and had performed on stage with University Drama Club at UNSW, sometimes with his daughter Valerie. In response to a request from the Australian Broadcasting Commission and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1958 for improved training of actors, he founded the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). From 1969 to 1975, Baxter was part-time and unpaid chairman of the Sydney Opera House Trust. He had recently retired from the UNSW, but the job was no sinecure. The architect, Jørn Utzon, had left, construction was behind schedule and over budget, and specialist staff needed to be recruited. Baxter put the project under his unpopular but decisive grip, and brought the Sydney Opera House to completion and opening on 20 October 1973. He died in Haberfield on 5 September 1989, and his remains were cremated. He was survived by three of his children; his wife Lilian had died on 27 July 1989, and his son Peter had died in a motor vehicle accident in the 1960s. ==Notes==