Arnold Edwin Victor Richardson

Arnold Edwin Victor Richardson (1883 to 1949) was an Australian scientist noted for dry farming research who became founding director of the Waite Agricultural Research Institute and later chief executive of the body now known as CSIRO. Born at Thebarton in South Australia, he took a diploma at Roseworthy and degrees at the University of Adelaide, and from 1909 at the Parafield Experimental Farm he was responsible for breeding several new wheat varieties. He was Agricultural Superintendent and Chief of the Division of Agriculture in Victoria from 1911, set up research stations at Werribee and Rutherglen, and became the first Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Melbourne. In 1924 he became Waite Professor of Agriculture at Adelaide and first director of the Waite Institute, where he directed research into the water and nitrogen needs of crops. He was deputy chief executive officer of CSIR from 1938 and chief executive in 1946, resigned in 1949, and was the first president of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science.