OBITUARY

Robert Hobbs died on 13/5/2019.

Dr Robert Hobbs was an engineer who made historic contributions to a range of fields, from metallurgy to 3D printing.

Born on 13 May 1941, he attained a Bachelor of Engineering (Metallurgy) with Honours at Melbourne University in 1963, and his Masters in 1965. Five years later he completed his PhD at the University of Manchester.

In 1964 he joined BHP he worked in various roles with the research and technical organisations of the company. His career with BHP lasted 37 years, spanning Newcastle, Melbourne and Port Kembla. He would ultimately became BHP’s General Manager, Research.

Dr Hobbs was a visiting Professor at McMaster University in Ontario, 1978–1979. During this time he developed and ran an industry course on Advanced Manufacturing for the American Society for Metals.

During 1983 and 1984 he was a Consultant to General Motors Technical Center (Advanced Manufacturing Group), Warren, Michigan on the Saturn Car Project.

Throughout his career he worked with various government advisory bodies.

Dr Hobbs was elected to the Academy in 1996. He won a Clunies Ross award in 1997 and later participated in the award selection process, as well as the Energy and Innovation forums.

One of his many remarkable achievements was his preparation of the Science Case for establishment of the Australian Synchrotron. He assisted with management of the facility during its commissioning and formative stage.

Dr Hobbs also chaired an advisory committee for operation of the Monash University Centre for Electron Microscopy. This centre housed four transmission electron microscopes, three scanning electron microscopes, a dual-beam focused ion beam (FIB) microscope and two three-dimensional atom probes.

Dr Hobbs led a consortium of five companies, two state governments, the Defence Acquisition Organisation, CSIRO Manufacturing Technology and three universities to establish the Cooperative Research Centre for MicroTechnology, which he chaired.

He was chief executive of Amaero Engineering, a spin-off company of Monash University’s Centre of Additive Manufacturing (MCAM). In this role he led the creation of the world’s first 3D printed jet engine.

Professor Hobbs died on his 78th birthday. He was married to Barbara.