Researching John Watt

Outside of state politics, he was a director of the Union Bank of Australia (now the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited) and the Colonial Sugar Refining Company. He was also a director of the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary and the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, as well as the founder of the Hospital for Sick Children, Glebe.

Watt was educated at the University of Sydney where he obtained a Master of Science degree in 1956. From around 1956 to 1967 he was a Research Officer with the Australian Atomic Energy Commission.

John Watt started work with the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC) as a Research Officer after graduating from The University of Sydney in 1956 with a Master of Science. He worked in the AAEC Isotope Division, becoming Head of the Radioisotope Applications Research Section in 1967.In 1982, he was transferred to the CSIRO Division of Mineral Physics as a Chief Research Scientist and Officer-in-Charge of the Division's Lucas Heights and Port Melbourne sites. He was appointed an Assistant Chief of the CSIRO Division of Mineral and Process Engineering in 1985, and returned to full-time research work as a CSIRO Fellow in 1995. He retired from CSIRO in 1997.John's research has covered a whole range of on-line analysis applications in the minerals, coal and oil industries. He pioneered this research in Australia, developing a balance between laboratory research and field trials. He also undertook the first major commercialisation of on-line mineral slurry analysis systems in the early 1970s, which led to the setting up of the on-line analysis manufacturing industry in Australia.

In 1991 Watt achieved an Australian Nuclear Association Award. In 2003 Watt was awarded a Centenary Medal for service to Australian society in applied physics.

Watt was born on 27 October 1901 at 4 Hidbrooke Park Road, Blackheath, London, to Richard Watt, a solicitor, and Minnie (née Dale). He went to Cranleigh School and University College London.

Among the shows he worked on as the BBC's Director of Variety were Workers' Playtime and ITMA.

He appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 3 December 1956.

Watt died on 23 February 1960 at home in Montpelier Street, Brighton. His wife Violette (they married in 1927) survived him; she wrote professionally, under the pen name of Angela Jeans.