Rodney was born in Geelong, Australia. He received his education from the University of Melbourne (BSc with 1st class honors) and the University of New South Wales (PhD Physics). His thesis research was on the characterization of the South Pole site for astrophysical observations.

Rodney was wintering over for the CARA AST/RO project. He had also wintered over for the CARA/IR project in 1998. He has been a great help to both projects and to all of Antarctic Astrophysics. Rodney was a wonderful member of CARA and especially the winterover crew. His enthusiasm and friendship will be missed by all of us.

A memorial service was held at the South Pole station Saturday evening, May 13. Rodney's family held a memorial service at 2:30 Wednesday afternoon May 17 in Torquay, Australia at a site overlooking the town and beaches, which Rodney loved. An informal gathering in Rodney's memory was held in Boston Thursday evening May 18.

Information about the 3 July funeral at the Pole

• (a 17 May 2000 New York Times article; see also a copy of the text if it is not available at the NY Times site. (NYTimes has limited free articles without pay registration)
• Science News (16 May 2000) from AAAS/Science Magazine (metered access--it might require an institutional or individual subscription). See also "Pole Researcher Dies" in what was then "Science Scope" (this may also require a subscription). (our copy of just the text from the Science News page and Science Scope.)
• Press release from NSF
• Statement by Dr. Karl Erb, Director, Office of Polar Programs, NSF
• More information from the AST/RO team
• AST/RO page for Rodney

(Shared memories of Rodney]

CARA's research and education programs are supported in part by the National Science Foundation under a cooperative agreement, grant number NSF OPP 89-20223. © Copyright 1998,1999,2000 by Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica. This copyright applies to all web pages and images created by CARA.