Aylward graduated on 20 May 1952 with a BSc (Honours) in Applied Chemistry from the then-new University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
[1][2] Later he received a MSc from the same university, and continued to teach Analytical Chemistry for 13 years there.
[3] During that period he organized the Approach to Chemistry summer schools, together with his co-teacher dr Tristan Findlay.
To support the course, they wrote the book SI Chemical Data as the textbook.
[3] Later Aylward joined Macquarie University as Associate Professor and worked from 1970 till his retirement in 2005 in developing countries as a Science Education consultant for UNESCO, then for the World Bank and finally as a freelance Senior Science Education Advisor.