Bureau Profile #1

Dr. Kevin Spillane: The Quality of Tenacity

On August 13 at Melbourne University he joins an even more select group—those who have gained a PhD in Meteorology. No mean achievement for a 41-year old father of five with the responsibility of heading the Physical Research Branch.

Dr. Kevin Thomas Spillane, BSc., PhD., earned his degrees by a quality of tenacity well known to his colleagues. This determination showed first on the rugby field, where Kev, although not heavily built, represented Queensland and Victoria in interstate competition as a five-eighth. One assumes he was very fast by the fact of his survival.

A man of wide scientific interests—and one ready to advise and encourage younger colleagues—Kev Spillane has been described by contemporaries as "a provocative thinker, a real ideas man." He argues quietly, if urgently—with his dry wit always on standby.

Kev left school in Brisbane in 1946 and worked for some months as a surveyor's assistant before answering an advertisement for meteorological assistants. He recalls that during his schooling he regularly passed Queensland Regional Office, where he was "mystified by things spinning around, tanks and the white boxes on poles. It seemed a very exciting Scientific place . . ."

Bureau of Meteorology