Roderick William Boswell (born 1932) is an Australian physicist. He is a professor at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

, in the Space Plasma, Power and Propulsion group of the Plasma Research Laboratory. He invented a technology which become the basis for the development of a new type of rocket thruster, the

Helicon Double Layer Thruster The helicon double-layer thruster is a prototype electric spacecraft propulsion. It was created by Australian scientist Christine Charles, based on a technology invented by Professor Rod Boswell, both of the Australian National University. The ...

: the ongoing development of the Australian Plasma Thruster is supported by the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

Biography

Rod Boswell was born in

Yackandandah Yackandandah is a town in northeast Victoria, Australia. It is near the regional cities of Wodonga and Albury, and is close to the tourist town of Beechworth. At the , Yackandandah had a population of 2,008. History The indigenous people of ...

in 1932.Rod W. Boswell - The Story
people.physics.anu.edu.au After taking his B.Sc. at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

, he completed a Ph.D. at

Flinders University Flinders University, established as The Flinders University of South Australia is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across a number of locations in South Australia and ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. There, in 1969, he was instrumental in establishing the radical student newspaper ''

Empire Times ''Empire Times'' (''ET'') is the student newspaper of Flinders University, in Adelaide, South Australia. It ceased publication in 2006 as a result of voluntary student unionism, but resumed in 2013 with the reintroduction of Tertiary education f ...

'' by purchasing and running, in the living room of his home, an

offset press Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on t ...

, thereby liberating the new newspaper from the censorious tendencies of commercial printers. His honours and awards include: * In 2000, he received the Plasma Science & Technology Division Plasma Prize from the

American Vacuum Society AVS: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing (formally the American Vacuum Society, Inc.) is a professional and scientific society founded in 1953 as a committee on vacuum technology. The AVS supports networking among its ...

"for outstanding scientific and technical contributions to the fields of plasma science and technology." *In 2001 he was awarded a

Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or g ...

"for service to Australian society in applied physics". *In 2008 he was elected a

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science The Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science is made up of about 500 Australian scientists. Scientists judged by their peers to have made an exceptional contribution to knowledge in their field may be elected to Fellowship of the Academy ...

*In 2012 he was appointed a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

(AM) "for service to science in the field of plasma physics as an academic and researcher and through contributions to the international scientific community".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boswell, Rod 1932 births Living people 20th-century Australian scientists 21st-century Australian scientists Academic staff of the Australian National University 21st-century Australian physicists Members of the Order of Australia Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Flinders University alumni University of Adelaide alumni