Dr B A Bolto, an applied polymer scientist, leads the Water and wastewater Research Program in the Division of Chemical Technology.

As co-inventor of the Sirothenn desalination process and of the important magnetic ion-exchange resins, his name is on sixteen Australian patents and fifty-seven publications.

He was primarily responsible for the initial R & Don the Sirotherm "plum-pudding resin" and participated, with ICI Australia Limited, in its commercial development. He has played a major role in a series of further resin inventions relating to improvements to Sirotherm and magnetic resins, some of which have reached the commercial stage.