Christiansen, Wilbur Norman (WN)

Born in Melbourne, Christiansen attended Caulfield Grammar School and the University of Melbourne, receiving his DSc in 1953. 

Before taking up the Peter Nicol Russell Chair of Electrical Engineering at the University of Sydney in 1960, Christiansen worked for Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Ltd Sydney on problems of long-distance radio communications (1937-48), was a foundation member CSIR's radio-astronomy group and in 1960-61, leader of the Benelux Cross project. From 1948 to 1978, Christiansen's research in the field of radio-astronomy included designing radiotelescopes at Fleurs in western Sydney, in Europe and China and collaborating with J Hogbom on "Radiotelescopes" published in English in 1969, in Russian in 1971 and in Chinese in 1977. Through the 1960s, Christiansen converted his original telescope at Fleurs to a more sensitive instrument which was used to map the southern sky in much greater detail than previously possible. 

Christiansen was an active member of various Australian and international scientific and engineering bodies including the Union Radio-scientifique Internationale and the World Federation of Scientific Workers.

His obituary 1913-2007 was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 24 May 2007.