Emeritus ProfessorNeil Barnett

Professor of Analytical Chemistry

Neil graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science (Applied Chemistry) from the
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1978. The previous year, he joined
Carlton and United Breweries as an analytical chemist. In January 1981 he
departed Australia to begin a PhD with Professor Gordon Kirkbright in the
newly established Department of Instrumentation and Analytical Science at the
University of Manchester; graduating in December 1986. He was took up a
lectureship in inorganic/analytical chemistry at Plymouth Polytechnic in
September 1985, and after three years he was recruited by ICI Chemicals and
Polymers at Runcorn as a senior research scientist in process analytical
chemistry.

A decade after leaving Australia, the overwhelming appeal of academe lured him
back down under to Deakin University, Geelong as a senior lecturer. Currently,
he is privileged to lead of one of Australia's prominent analytical chemistry
research groups. In 2003 Neil was awarded the Royal Australian Chemical
Institute, Analytical Chemistry Division Medal and in 2004 he was appointed to
a personal chair. The following year Neil graduated with a DSc from Deakin
University for his contributions to analytical chemistry. Neil has been active
on numerous committees of both the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Royal
Australian Chemical Institute for more than three decades. He has co-authored
over one hundred and seventy papers, supervised forty PhD students and is one
of the editors of Analytica Chimica Acta.

Neil has served on various panels of the Australian Research Council (ARC)
including the Future Fellowships Selection Advisory Committee in 2009 and 2010
and the ERA Research Evaluation Committee in 2012. In 2013 he was appointed to
the ARC College on Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences group.

Born in January 1951 (Melbourne) Neil attended both Whiteside and Noble Park
State Primary Schools between 1957 and 1962 after which he enrolled at Noble
Park Technical School leaving in the April of 1967 before finishing form five
(year eleven). The twenty-one months he spent working for a small manufacturer
of electronic components served to highlight how much there was to learn about
science, so in February 1969 he returned to the technical school to complete
his leaving certificate. The following year saw him meander through his higher
school certificate at Noble Park High School achieving only mediocre results.
During the next three years, he held various technical positions in the
packaging, automotive and brewing industries, which were associated with some
disappointing attempts at part-time tertiary study (including one at RMIT).
In 1974 Neil was fortunate to be offered a place on the course for Bachelor of
Applied Science (Applied Chemistry) at RMIT, which he accepted without
hesitation. By the end of 1975 he was trying out his newly acquired chemical
knowledge as vacation scholar at Telecom Australia's research laboratories
within the polymer science group. In 1977 he returned to the laboratories at
CUB as a research technician and within the year was promoted to analytical
chemist. In this latter role he was able to continue his interest in research
on a challenging yet fascinating project concerned with hydride
generation/atomic spectroscopy, which led him to consider the possibility of
further study.
At a Royal Australian Chemical Institute seminar in August 1979, Neil enjoyed
an extended and convivial discussion with the guest speaker, Dr Gordon
Kirkbright (then Reader at Imperial College, London), regarding the
possibility of a postgraduate degree. After eighteen months and considerable
correspondence, the newly appointed Professor Kirkbright invited him to join
the recently established Department of Instrumentation and Analytical Science
at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
Accordingly, on an extremely cold Manchester morning, in late January 1981,
Neil began an enthralling and enlightening period of postgraduate life
punctuated by more than a few trips abroad and marred only by the tragic and
untimely death of his dear friend and supervisor, Gordon Kirkbright, in July
1984. In the late summer of 1985 Neil married Darlene Exley, a charming lass
from Barnsley in South Yorkshire, and after a three-day honeymoon they
departed Manchester for Plymouth Polytechnic where Neil learnt (with
considerable help) how to be a lecturer in inorganic/analytical chemistry
wrote his PhD thesis but more importantly became a father of a son (James
Alistair). However, the lack of research funding coupled with high teaching
loads persuaded Neil to join ICI Chemicals and Polymers in August 1988 as a
senior research scientist, with specific responsibility for establishing
collaborative prorgrammes with universities in the area of process analytical
chemistry. As challenging and interesting as the ICI position was, the lure of
real academic life again beckoned and after a decade living in England he
returned to Australia to take up a senior lectureship within the School of
Biological and Chemical Sciences at Deakin University where he is now
Professor of Analytical Chemistry.