DOMINION ANALYST

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 139, 8 March 1930, Page 10

DOMINION ANALYST

DR. MACLAURIN’S SUCCESSOR

MR. W. DONOVAN APPOINTED

Mr. W. Donovan, M.Sc., F. 1.0., assistant analyst of the Dominion Laboratory, has been appointed Dominion Analyst, in succession to Dr. J. S. Sfaclaurin, who is to retire at the end of the present month. Born in Thames in 1879, Mr. Donovan was educated at Thames High School and the Thames School of Mines, where he won a university scholarship and a scholarship in chemistry. Continuing his studies at Otago and Auckland Universities, he graduated M.Sc., with honours in chemistry and geometry. In 1905 he joined the laboratory staff o£ the Mines Department, which at that period carried out for itself and other departments work similar to that now performed by the Dominion Laboratory. The laboratory, which was' later to carry its present title, was subsequently transferred to the control of the Internal Affairs Department and finally, to the charge, in 1926, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Mr. Donovan has been with the laboratory for the past twenty-five years, and has several times, in the absence of Dr. Maclaurin, acted as Dominion Analyst. In 1926 Mr. Donovan visited England and Canada in connection with coal investigation work, and spent some time at the National Research Laboratory, London. Last year he was commissioned to investigate the low temperature carbonisation of eoal experiments in Canada and America, and to submit a report on his observations to the Waikato Coal Owners’ Association, which is now proceeding with the installation of a low temperature carbonisation plant in the Waikato coal mine area.

Mr. Donovan is also gas examiner to the Department of Industries and Commerce, a member of the fuel research committee of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, a member of the council of the Wellington Philosophical Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry, and a member of the Society of Public Analysts, London. He Fas published short bulletins on Taranaki iron, sand, and the clays of New Zealand, nnd several papers regarding coal, on which he is a recognised authority.