Ronald Ernest Aitchison (29 December 1921 – 9 March 1996) was an Australian physicist and electronics engineer who contributed to a range of fields and technologies from solid-state devices to satellite imaging.
From 1942 to 1945 Aitchison worked as an engineer with the Amalgamated Wireless Valve Company on the design and production of klystrons and radar magnetrons, which were new devices important to the war effort.
As a researcher he created a state-of-the-art electronics laboratory and led several successful projects of a highly practical nature including pioneering work on the reception of satellite weather pictures that were shown every evening in Sydney's television newscasts.
[1] At the School of Mathematics and Physics Aitchison became a colleague and friend of quantum physicist John Clive Ward and he was a supporter, and active participant, of the Macquarie science reform movement.
I can say that Ron Aitchison was one of the most energetic, most knowledgeable, most practical, most intelligent and most interesting persons I have ever known, and even more importantly, he was a real friend with a heart of gold and a purity of spirit unsullied by self-seeking motives.