Rigby has made important contributions to the advancement of electronics in Australia, primarily in his connection with a local 'custom' integrated circuit (IC) facility, but also through his part-time teachng at UNSW. Rigby designed the first IC made in Australia in 1967; since then he has designed (or supervised development) of more than 100 ICs, many being described in his 29 published papers. Rigby received an award from the Eta Kappa Nu Society as outstanding lecturer in 1967, while an Assistant Professor at Berkley, and was appointed to the Australian Research Grants Committee (ARGC) in 1978.