Jim May (chemical engineer)

May began his career as a metallurgist at Broken Hill South Mine Limited between 1957 and 1958.[11] In June of 1958, he moved to the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC) as an Experimental Officer. He worked there until 1968, predominantly at the HIFAR Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor which had only gone critical in April of 1958.[12] In this role, he did research into nuclear reactor fuels involving Thorium as well as in fuel reprocessing.[13] This role led to him working abroad with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority in 1963. There, he completed a training expereince for three months at the Harwell Reactor School. While in the UK, May worked on a number of confidential projects of interest to Australia. Following this, May went to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States in 1964 and 1965 as a guest scientist in which he studied for Australia's interest manufacturing and reprocessing nuclear fuels.[14][12] This endeavoured to cooperatively research nuclear technology for power generation, which had earlier investigated in the development of the United States's and United Kingdom's atomic bomb.[2] In 1967, he was appointed Head of the Chemical Engineering Section of the Australian Commission but soon left in 1968 to become the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Minerals Industry Research Association Limited (AMIRA).[2][12]

In 1968, May became the first permanent CEO of AMIRA at that point, since AMIRA was established in 1959.[15][16] This organisation became an advisory group for governments around the world that endeavoured to research into developing and managing new technologies and mitigation strategies in the mining and metallurgy fields. He also established a framework called the ‘AMIRA model’ in which R&D costs and intellectual property was shared with many research bodies globally.[2] After retiring from AMIRA in 1994, May and AMIRA were both jointly awarded the Australian Eureka Museum Price for Industry.[17] In it, describes the work of May in which he, "…pioneered the practice of multi-company sponsored research". This, as a result, brought about significant change in the culture of mineral research in Australia, the award says. “This rigorous approach to research planning and execution provided an exemplary learning experience for a generation of researchers in the CSIRO and the universities”. Upon his retirement, AMIRA employed over 12 professional staff and managed over 70 research projects with a value of over $30 million. Many oversease companies from other Western countries were involved with AMIRA through May's connections.[18] The impact of this change was particularly measured in the 1990s, where AMIRA began to be regarded as “world leading” and an organisation that managed well the, “…interaction between industry and the research community”. The Australian Mining Hall of Fame described him in 2016 that he is, “Recognised as a leader and driving force for the development and formalisation of collaborative research within the minerals industry, across all technical disciplines, for over 25 years”.[19][17][20]

For context, in 1952, May joined AusIMM and served on various AusIMM committees throughout the latter half of the 20th century. AusIMM awarded him the Institute Medal in 1992 and named him the Distinguished Lecturer to the USA in 1995.[21] In this time, May had been a board member of multiple Cooperative Research Centres including the Centre for Mining Technology and Equipment at the University of Queensland.[22] He has also been Director of the Australian Minerals and Energy Environment Foundation.[23] He has worked in advisory committees for many university departments and several divisions of the CSIRO and the Australian Centre for Minesite Rehabilitation Research.[24][3] In addition to these, he was also a board member of the Scientific Advisory Board of CSR Limited (Rio Tinto Limited) in the 1990s. In this time he was also on the board of the Sugar Research Institute where he applied his same skills from AMIRA.[25] Moreover, he also had an important role in the success of the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC). May had a long-standing collaborative relationship with Alban Lynch. He also had a close association with the Sir James Foots School of Mineral Resources at the University of Queensland and the Sir Ian Wark Research Institute with John Ralston at the University of South Australia between 1994 and 2010.[21] May has also been a member of the Australian Research Council as a committee member that reviewed several programs before his retirement.[26] Upon retiring, May was invited by AusIMM to lecture about his works with AusIMM at various mining engineering institutes throughout the United States in 1995. This is where he received an honourary award as the ‘distinguished lecturer’ from AusIMM and the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME).[2][27]