Department_of_Scientific_and_Industrial_Research_(New_Zealand)
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (New Zealand)
Former government science agency of New Zealand
The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) was a government science agency in New Zealand, founded in 1926 and broken into Crown Research Institutes in 1992.
DSIR logo in the 1980s and 1990s | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1926 (1926) |
| Preceding agencies |
|
| Dissolved | 1 April 1992 (1992-04-01) |
| Superseding agency |
|
| Employees | 2,000 in 1976[1] |
| Minister responsible | |
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DSIR was founded in 1926 by Ernest Marsden[1] after calls from Ernest Rutherford for government to support education and research[2] and on the back of the Imperial Economic Conference in London in October and November 1923, when various colonies discussed setting up such departments.[3] It initially received funding from sources such as the Empire Marketing Board.[4] The initial plans also included a new agricultural college, to be jointly founded by Auckland and Victoria University Colleges, Palmerston North was chosen as the site for this and it grew to become Massey University.[5]
DSIR initially had five divisions:[6]
- Grasslands in Palmerston North
- Plant Diseases in Auckland
- Entomology, attached to the Cawthron Institute in Nelson
- Soil Survey (later Soil Bureau) in Taita
- Agronomy (later Crop Research Division) in Lincoln
- Geophysics Division from 1951[7]
The later Antarctic Division became Antarctica New Zealand in 1996.[8]
The Grasslands Division originally included the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute, which became the Fonterra Research and Development Centre in 2001.[9]
The following is a list of Directors-General (Chief Executive) of DSIR:[10]
- Ernest Marsden - 1926 to 1947
- Frank Callaghan - 1947 to 1953
- Bill Hamilton - 1953 to 1971
- Eddie Robertson - 1971 to 1980
- Bruce Miller - 1980 to 1984
- Jim Ellis - 1984 to 1989
- Mike Collins - 1989 to 1994
Reconstituted into initially 10 semi-independent entities called Crown Research Institutes by the Crown Research Institutes Act 1992, with some further consolidation since.[11]
- Galbreath, Ross (1998). DSIR: Making Science Work for New Zealand: Themes from the History of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1926–1992. Wellington [N.Z.]: Victoria University Press. ISBN 0864733542. OCLC 44633299.
- Nathan, Simon (6 October 2014). "Research institutions – Developing research organisations". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
- Brewerton, Emma (15 December 2014). "Ernest Rutherford". Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
- "Sheep-raising poster from 1927 | NZHistory, New Zealand history online". Nzhistory.net.nz. 23 December 2013. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
- "3. DSIR research – Agricultural and horticultural research – Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand". Teara.govt.nz. 13 July 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
- "Our History / About Us / Home – GNS Science". Gns.cri.nz. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
- "Giant of Antarctica saved Scott Base". Stuff (Fairfax). 18 February 2009.
- Hill, Jeremy (2003). "The Fonterra Research Centre". International Journal of Dairy Technology. 56 (3): 127–132. doi:10.1046/j.1471-0307.2003.00111.x.
- "Crown Research Institutes Act 1992". legislation.govt.nz. 15 June 1992. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
- Department of Scientific and Industrial Research entry in the 1966 edition of the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand