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Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (New Zealand)
Former government science agency of New Zealand From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) was a government science agency in New Zealand, founded in 1926 and broken into Crown Research Institutes in 1992.
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History
DSIR was founded in 1926 by Ernest Marsden[1] after calls from Ernest Rutherford for government to support education and research[2] and on the back of the Imperial Economic Conference in London in October and November 1923, when various colonies discussed setting up such departments.[3] It initially received funding from sources such as the Empire Marketing Board.[4] The initial plans also included a new agricultural college, to be jointly founded by Auckland and Victoria University Colleges, Palmerston North was chosen as the site for this and it grew to become Massey University.[5]
It was reconstituted into 10 semi-independent entities called Crown Research Institutes by the Crown Research Institutes Act 1992, with some further consolidation since.[6]
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Structure
DSIR initially had five divisions:[7]
- Grasslands in Palmerston North
- Plant Diseases in Auckland
- Entomology, attached to the Cawthron Institute in Nelson
- Soil Survey (later Soil Bureau) in Taita
- Agronomy (later Crop Research Division) in Lincoln
The Grasslands Division originally included the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute, which became the Fonterra Research and Development Centre in 2001.[8]
The Geophysics Division was established in 1951.[9]
The Antarctic Division was established in 1959[10] and became Antarctica New Zealand in 1996.[11]
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List of directors-general
The directors-general (chief executives) of DSIR were:[12]
- Ernest Marsden – 1926 to 1947
- Frank Callaghan – 1947 to 1953
- Bill Hamilton – 1953 to 1971
- Eddie Robertson – 1971 to 1980
- Bruce Miller – 1980 to 1984
- Jim Ellis – 1984 to 1989
- Mike Collins – 1989 to 1994
See also
References
Works cited
External links
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