OBITUARY

Tom Denmead died on 7/3/2018.

Dr Owen Thomas (Tom) Denmead AO FTSE was a pioneer in the field of microscale meteorology, greenhouse gas emission and evaporation science, greatly advancing knowledge of mass and energy exchange between vegetation and the atmosphere.

Starting in 1955, Dr Denmead had a career at CSIRO that spanned 63 years, including 21 years as a highly productive Honorary Fellow. In 1993 he was appointed Chief Research Scientist.

At CSIRO, he established the foundational science in these scientific fields and guided agricultural policy and practice.

Dr Denmead made some of the first carbon dioxide flux measurements over forests and crops. Carbon dioxide flux refers to its movement out of soil, and is the primary function of soil respiration. It's a significant component of the total atmospheric carbon balance and an important variable in climate change studies.

And it was Dr Denmead's participating advice in 1995 that led to the establishment of Fluxnet - a global network of tower sites that measure the exchange of carbon dioxide, water vapour and energy between the biosphere and atmosphere.

By the time Dr Denmead was elected to the Academy in 1989, he was already globally renowned for this interdisciplinary research. He retired from active involvement with ATSE in 2006.

Dr Denmead then took on the role of Honorary Fellow with CSIRO Land and Water. In this role he continued his broad international collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Canada, the Chinese Academy of Science, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the China Agricultural University in Beijing. He contributed to projects relating to greenhouse gas emissions from beef production, sugarcane soils and nitrogen fertiliser management.

His career and lifetime commitment to science was recognised with an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2012, several years after his retirement. He was awarded for distinguished service to environmental research in the fields of crop and soil sciences, physical ecology and micrometeorology, and through the development of improved agricultural practices.

The Australian agricultural industry is better prepared thanks to his lifetime of committed science.

Dr Owen Thomas Denmead died on 2 July at the age of 85.