Mike Batty

Dr Mike Batty – Senior Electronics Engineer

Mike originally trained as a physicist, completing his BSc at Sydney University in 1966, followed by a doctorate in the area of radio astronomy. After completing his PhD he worked for several years at the CSIRO Division of Radiophysics at Marsfield, mainly developing instrumentation and software for radio astronomy, in particular for a radio interferometer using antennas at NASA’s Tidbinbilla Deep Space Network tracking station near Canberra.

Mike was also part of the team that used this instrument in a highly successful radio-optical program searching for distant quasars. In 1978 Mike took up a postdoctoral position as a US National Science Foundation research associate at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, where he worked mainly on the analysis of radio interferometer data. In 1980 he returned to CSIRO to work on further radio astronomy projects. Mike has authored or co-authored several dozen publications in the astronomy area.

In 1986 a career change saw him leave CSIRO to take up a position teaching electronics at Macquarie University, where he remained until early 2007. During this time he was involved in the development of a variety of hardware and software projects, including systems and software for reception of data from remote sensing satellites, and MS Windows-based software applications for teaching .

In late 2007, weary of assignment marking, he joined BCS Innovations as a Senior Engineer specialising in analog circuit design. Affectionately known as "Dr Mike" around BCS, he enjoys providing advice to younger engineers, being a test subject for medical devices for the youthfully challenged, and acting as the brunt of senior jokes (particularly from the HR staff).

Mike has had a long interest in electronics, beginning as a hobbyist in his teens, when he fiddled with regenerative valve radios and adroitly managed to avoid electrocution. His other interests over the years have included cars and motor sport (rallying a Datsun 1600 and a Hillman Imp(!)), audio systems, photography, woodwork, psychology, listening to music of many genres , being a (very) amateur guitarist and occasionally telling Dad Jokes. Mike has three perfect children, Julian, Kathleen and Dylan; the older two are studying at university in order to support their father in later life.