Professor Howard Worner

Nov 23, 2006

One of Australia’s most eminent metallurgists and scientists, Professor Howard Worner, CBE, died on 17 November, aged 93.

Professor Worner’s life and extraordinary contribution to Australia’s scientific endeavour will be celebrated at a funeral service at the University of Wollongong on 23 November.

He was a true icon of materials science, known as a world authority in the scientific study of dental and surgical materials early in his career, before concentrating on smelting and casting processes.

He published widely in the field of metallurgy and developed the “WORCRA” continuous smelting and refining process.

Professor Worner grew up on a farm in Victoria’s Mallee District. However, drought and the Great Depression forced the family off the land and they moved to Bendigo, where Howard and his two brothers attended a technical school. Their ability was quickly noticed, and the boys all won scholarships to Bendigo School of Mines and then to the University of Melbourne.

A Doctor of Science at the age of 28, Professor Worner spent World War II designing artificial limbs for returned servicemen and pioneering the development of prosthetic devices. Much of this work involved designing and fitting ears, noses and chins on injured servicemen, which he described as “traumatic, but extremely rewarding”.

Professor Worner was Dean of Metallurgy and Dean of Engineering at the University of Melbourne for a decade after World II, before being appointed BHP’s first Director of Research in 1955. He also served mining giant CRA (now Rio Tinto) as Director of New Process Development from 1963 to 1975.

Professor Worner and his wife Rilda moved to Wollongong in 1986 to be closer to their daughter Ruth (a UOW graduate) and her family. Professor Worner, then aged 74, was in semi-retirement, chairing federal and state government committees on energy and other strategic issues, but UOW’s then Vice-Chancellor Professor Ken McKinnon persuaded him to take up the directorship of a new research centre – the Microwave Research Applications Centre.

It was the start of an association that continued for almost two decades.

To mark Professor Worner’s 80th birthday in 1993, UOW honoured him with a Symposium attended by more than 150 of his peers, including a stellar cast of scientists, engineers and industrialists including the then Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and BHP Chairman Brian Loton.

In 2000 Professor Worner donated his collection of more than 1,000 rare mineral and rock samples to UOW, along with a first edition copy of his book Minerals of Broken Hill. The “Howard Worner Collection” is on permanent display in the foyer of the Sciences Building (41). It is considered one of the finest collections of its type in the world.

In 2002 Professor Worner became the first Australian to be awarded the Benjamin F. Fairless Award, the most prestigious award in the international industry. In 2003 the Federal Government presented him with a Centenary Medal for his services to science.