OBITUARY

Ray Martin died on 25/02/2020.

Professor Raymond Leslie Martin AO FTSE FAA was the third Vice-Chancellor of Monash University, guiding it through a period when opportunities for growth were limited.

His ten-year appointment began in 1977 and coincided with a freeze in university funding. Seeking a path towards financial self-reliance, he built new centres for innovative research and graduate teaching at the university.

One of his projects was the birth of Montech, a high-tech consulting company owned by Monash University with the

aim of marketing research and ideas rich with commercial promise. He also opened up contact with local industrial research laboratories such as BHP, Telecom and the CSIRO.

Professor Martin was a distinguished chemist in his own right. In 1968 he was awarded a Doctor of Science by Cambridge University for his contribution to the theory and practice of co-ordination chemistry and in 1978 he received a Doctor of Science from the Australian National University. He was the recipient of the Leighton Medal (1989), the Inorganic Chemistry Medal (1978), the Archibald Ollé Prize (1975) and the HG Smith Medal (1968).

When Professor Martin stepped down as Vice-Chancellor he continued until 1991 to work as a Professor of Chemistry at Monash and played a part in shaping science policy as Chair of the Australian Science and Technology Council.

In 1987 he was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) for services to science and higher education, as well as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. In 1989 he became a Fellow of the Academy of Technology and Engineering.

He’s been described as a quiet, charming and approachable man and a scientist of high integrity.

He died 25 February 2020, aged 94.