Sir John Philip Baxter KBE CMG FAA (7 May 1905 – 5 September 1989) was a British-Australian chemical engineer.

Under his administration, the university grew from its technical college roots into the "fastest growing and most rapidly diversifying tertiary institution in Australia".

During the Second World War he provided James Chadwick with samples of uranium hexafluoride for Tube Alloys, the British wartime nuclear weapons program, and later established a pilot plant to produce it in Widnes.

In 1944, in response to a request from the Americans for someone with expertise in both uranium chemistry and industrial operations, he went to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to assist the Manhattan Project.

With the help of a £250 per annum James Watt research scholarship,[3] he wrote his 1928 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis on "The combustion of carbonic oxide",[4] under the supervision of F. H.

The two became engaged, but before they could marry, Alexander Fleck had Baxter transferred to ICI's new General Chemicals Division in Widnes as head of the Central Laboratory.

New products that were created included various solvents, chlorinated rubber, and Lindane, an insecticide developed in collaboration with ICI's Agricultural Research Station at Jealott's Hill.

He reorganised the Central Laboratory into seven sections, each with its own Assistant Research Manager, an organisational structure known as "Baxter and the seven dwarves", which was not generally considered a success at the time.

Chadwick then revealed that this was part of a secret project, codenamed Tube Alloys, the object of which was to build an atomic bomb.

[7] The following year, in response to a request from the Americans for someone with expertise in both uranium chemistry and industrial operations, Baxter was sent to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for three months to assist the Manhattan Project.

[9] At the request of the director of the Manhattan Project, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Jr., Baxter subsequently returned to Oak Ridge for an indefinite period, this time with his family.

[3][8] For his wartime nuclear weapons work, Baxter was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1946.

He became a director of Thorium Ltd,[3] a company half owned by ICI that was involved in the production of radioactive substances,[11] and was a consultant to the British nuclear energy program.

Baxter and his family packed their belongings and sailed to Australia on the ocean liner Orcades, arriving in Sydney on 16 January 1950.

Although he had no previous teaching experience, he turned out to be a good, well-organised lecturer, and he worked closely with his first postgraduate students, whose research was into fields that Baxter had been involved with in England.

While Baxter did not side with them, contending that the university's association with the government provided funding and facilities, most of what he did moved in that direction.

[3][2] A committee appointed by the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, and chaired by Keith Murray, recommended in 1957 that a medical school be established at Kensington.

[3][2] In Baxter's eyes, the main role of the university was to provide trained engineers and technologists for industry, which he believed was suffering from a critical skill shortage.

Baxter considered it wasteful when good students returned to academia after only a brief time working in industry, but even more so when they dropped out or failed their courses.

The AAEC was run by a three commissioners, with Jack Stevens as chairman, Baxter as vice-chairman and Hugh Murray from the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company as the third member.

[22] Baxter and Frederick White from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) visited nuclear facilities in Britain, the United States and Canada in 1953.

As there were few people in Australia with nuclear technology experience, he arranged with Sir John Cockcroft for Australians to be seconded to the British Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell.

[22] Based on the DIDO reactor at Harwell, HIFAR was cooled and moderated by heavy water, and fuelled with enriched uranium.

His proposals found a sympathetic ear in Prime Minister John Gorton, who approved plans to build a CANDU reactor at Jervis Bay in 1969.

[25][26] An access road was built and ground was cleared,[2] but Gorton lost office on 10 March 1971, and the project was suspended, and later cancelled by his successors.

In 1975 he declared:Over the years I have initially advocated that we should create the necessary technology and industrial background to enable us to move into a nuclear armament quickly.

[28] For his work as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Baxter was made a Companion Order of St Michael and St George in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 13 June 1959,[29] and was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Civil Division in the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours on 12 June 1965.

[3] By 2013, NIDA was regarded as one of the world's finest drama schools, with alumni that included Cate Blanchett, Judy Davis, Mel Gibson, Baz Luhrmann and Hugo Weaving.

Baxter put the project under his unpopular but decisive grip, and brought the Sydney Opera House to completion and opening on 20 October 1973.