Historical Article
Electrical Engineer, Research Scientist, and Educator – Pioneer in CT Scan Imaging and Continuing Contributions to New Zealand and International Research and Education.
ACPSEM President 1981 – 83
Professor R H T Bates DSc FIEE FIEEE FIPNZ FACPSEM FRSNZ FEng MEA
Professor Bates graduated BSc. in electrical engineering in 1952 from University College, the University of London, which awarded him the D.Sc. (Eng.) degree in 1972. He worked on projects concerned with Guided Missiles and Microwave Antenna Engineering, and in Radar and Communication Systems, as a Research and Development Engineer (in UK, Canada and USA) until 1967, when he joined the Engineering School of the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He is married with 3 sons (one a real doctor at McGill in Montreal, another a real engineer in Sydney and the third a medical doctor in Christchurch) and one daughter (a computer scientist, at the University of Canterbury, with a PhD. from the Australian National University). His wife Philippa works with intellectually handicapped adults as a Programme Coordinator for the New Zealand IHC.
His industrial experience was with Vickers-Armstrong, Decca Radar, Canadian Westinghouse, the National and Mitre Corporations, and the Sperry Rand Research Centre. Since 1975, he has held a Personal Chair in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Canterbury.
He has built up a personal research school at Canterbury that has so far involved over 50 postgraduate students working in applied electromagnetic, various aspects of man-machine interaction (e.g. music, chess), information/image/signal processing (with multifarious applications, from astronomy to medicine), and a range of biomedical engineering areas. Of his former students, one is now the world’s premier radio telescope builder, some half dozen are prominent members of the international medical imaging community, another was the first recipient of the ACPSEM Boyce Worthley Prize, one directs New Zealand’s main image processing facility, yet another is a First Secretary at the New Zealand Embassy in Washington, four are presently departmental colleagues of his (with another four holding or having held appointments in other university departments in New Zealand), with rather more than half of those who have so far completed their studies being still in New Zealand, and four have migrated across the Tasman.
The main engineering-scientific contributions of the group of students, visitors and colleagues who have worked with Professor Bates have been:
- the early development of the null field method; – (a numerical approach to diffraction problems of interest in radio engineering, radar and sonar) – and unconventional kinds of holography – (which influenced the calibration and measurement of antennas and have helped to improve the optical astronomical technique known as “speckle imaging”)
- the independent (re-)discovery in 1970 of the principle of X-ray computed tomography – (which has remained a persistent interest, expanding into CT using ultrasound and low-frequency electric currents)
- the still developing global approach to inverse problems – (i.e. how one deduces the constitution of remotely probed or sensed objects)
- the counting resolution of problems associated with Blind-Deconvolution/Fourier-Phase-Retreival – (in essence, how to restore an image or a signal that has been distorted or blurred by an unknown process).
A particularly striking (because of its extreme simplicity) aspect of this last dot point, is the shift-and-add algorithm has proved proved effective for astronomy, ultrasonic scattering and speech processing.
A fascinating (and mildly notorious) interlude comprised assisting a chemical colleague with the development of a “different” model for the DNA molecule (probably first of several alternative models proposed since 1975).
An exciting new investigation is of the technological/biological implications of strange attractors and deterministic chaos.
Professor Bates spends part of each year abroad, accepting invitations to visit laboratories and speak at conferences. He has been:
- Senior Visiting Fellow of the UK Science Research Council;
- Visiting ForeignLecturer of Canadian Humanities and Social Sciences Research Council;
- Thomas Alvin Boyd Lecturer of Ohio State University;
- Distinguished Visiting Scholar to University of Adelaide;
- George A. Miller Visiting Professor of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
- Landsdowne Fellow of University of Victoria (British Columbia); and
- Participant in NZ-USA Cooperative Science Program.
He is on the editorial Advisory Boards of
- Ultrasonic Imaging;
- IEEE Trans.
- Microwave Theory and Techniques;
- Marquis Who’s Who Directory of Optical Scientists and Engineers.
He was a member of:
- Australian Commonwealth Department of Health’s Review Committee for the Ultrasonics Institute;
- International Unions of Astronomy and Radio Science;
- NZ Advisory Committee for DSIR Division of Information Technology;
- NZ Councils of Institution of Professional Engineers (IPENZ); and
- Royal Society (RSNZ)
He was awarded:
- The Michaelis Prize for Astronomy (1980) by Otago University;
- Cooper Prize (for Physics/Engineering) by RSNZ.
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Obituary and Tribute
(Extract taken from The New Zealand Mathematical Society (Inc.) Newsletter, No. 50, December 1990)
The University community and engineering scientists throughout the world were deeply saddened by the death on 4 November 1990 of Professor R.H.T. (Richard) Bates, D.Sc.(eng.)(Lond.), F.I.E.E., F.I.E.E.E., F.I.P.N.Z., F.A.C.P.S.E.M., F.R.S.N.Z., F.Eng., M.E.A.
Born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, in 1929, Richard Heaton Tunstall Bates worked as an electrical engineer and researcher in England, Canada and the United States before joining the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Canterbury in 1967.
His Wide-ranging and ingenious contributions to engineering research made him the most highly-acclaimed engineering scientist in the Southern Hemisphere and have substantially contributed to the now well secured standing of Electrical Engineering research and education in New Zealand.
Among the many prestigious honours and awards received by Professor Bates during his career were Fellowships of no fewer than six learned societies, three of which are fully international in membership. To be elected to just one such prestigious Fellowship is the aspiration of engineers and scientists throughout the world. In 1980 he received both the E. R. Cooper Memorial “Award for Physics and Engineering”, awarded by the Royal Society of New Zealand, and the Michaelis Memorial Prize for Astronomy and Astrophysics, awarded by the University of Otago. In 1987 he won (together with former student Dr A.D.Seagar) the coveted Snell Premium Prize of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. His most recent honour, received this year, was his election to membership of the Electromagnetics Academy.
Being of shortish stature, with unruly leonine hair and a cultivated eccentricity, one could have been forgiven, at first appearance, for labelling Professor Bates as the archetypal “mad professor”, engaged in pursuits abstract, esoteric and theoretical. However, the latter activities were largely confined, often stated, to the bath. Indeed, radio-astronomy, medical imaging, speech recognition, telecommunications and biomedical engineering are all areas in which Professor Bates made significant and practical contributions.
A prolific writer and charismatic communicator Professor Bates disseminated the results of his work widely. He participated regularly (often as invited speaker) at international conferences, and published over 300 papers in learned journals, as well as authoring a landmark book on Image Restoration and Reconstruction.
A network of expertise in Information Technology has been established in New Zealand, with strong international ties, in the form of more than 50 PhD graduates for whom Professor Bates acted not merely as supervisor, but more descriptive as mentor. These former students, who have met with an astonishing degree of success both here and overseas, maintain regular contact through a newsletter co-ordinated by Professor Bates’ wife, Philippa.
Professor Bates enjoyed success at the highest levels in scholarship and research, and earned the respect and devotion of countless students. He enjoyed literature and poetry, classical music and the theatre, as both listener and, as he would have said, perpetrator. Leisure hours were spent trout fishing, jogging, tramping or enjoying rugby and cricket. Add to this a deeply-valued family of Philippa, four children and four grand-children, and it is consolation that although only 61 years long, a life more full and satisfying is difficult to imagine.
Excellence, an emphasis on obligations rather than right, and the importance of leadership (as opposed to management) were central to the philosophy of Professor Bates. His life, his achievements, the entire generation of students and colleagues whose lives have been enriched by him, and the demonstration he leaves to all New Zealanders that international acclaim is not the prerogative of dwellers in the Northern Hemisphere, are all testimony to his adherence to these guiding principles. That others, especially those in positions of power and influence, adopt this philosophy as their own would be fitting tribute to Professor Bates.
There can be no doubt that the legend that Professor Bates has become will survive for generations of engineers to come, and those of his colleagues who have had the honour and privilege to be associated with him will miss him profoundly, but remember him with joy.
