Chemist and Aviator

Peter Dawes MRACI CChem

Why Chemistry?

Chromatography has long been in the blood, with my father (Ern) and mother (Nola) founding SGE in 1960. In my school and university vacations, I would work at SGE, initially in production then in the laboratory, fabricating capillary GC columns when it was still a new art.

As a 19-year-old, I was mixing and working with some of the early pioneers of chromatography, which was truly exhilarating and immensely challenging because the pace of the development and competitive pressures were immense. I never considered myself a knowledgeable chemist but chemistry remains a constant throughout my career whether it is in the chromatography or mass spectrometry applications we work with or in the materials science challenges that define what we can achieve in everything from designing new fluid handling devices (not just syringes!) to a new detector for a mass spectrometer.

Mentors

After running the R&D function at SGE, my father showed the trust to put the SGE global organisation in my hands to run as CEO when I was still only a 30-year-old. I led for over 20years, but recently I have stepped aside from the CEO role and returned to product development. As with my father, this is the part of the business that gives me the most pleasure and I am fortunate to have a talented leadership team in the company that allows me to do this.

At 80 years old, my father is still heavily involved in and contributing strongly in our development work and I hope I am able to achieve the same. Though I have had some great mentors in management, technical areas and life, I am particularly fortunate to have my father as an influential role model. We share the same development interests and we work well together, with our only serious disagreements occurring around technical issues.

CHEMIST AND AVIATOR

As a 19-year-old, I was mixing and working with some of the early pioneers of chromatography

Aviation

My passion for aviation goes back to my youth and devouring books on the exploits of inspirational aviation pioneers. I obtained my pilot license when still an undergraduate at Monash University and in the 33 years since I have had some great aviation experiences from an involvement in aerobatics through many journeys in which I have flown myself to some interesting parts of the world in light single-engine piston aircraft through to jets.

In 2005 I achieved a long-held ambition when I acquired my own Citation jet. While the jet is a dreadful extravagance on a number of levels, I can say that from aviation I have learnt a disciplined approach and attention to detail which, when applied to my career, has helped continue the growth of SGE to be a globally significant manufacturer in analytical chemistry instrumentation. We now have 400 people on the team here in Australia and around the world.