Dr. Peter Milligan: 1951 - 02 March, 2019
Email to MTNet of 09 April, 2019.
Dear MTnet colleagues,
Sadly, Peter Milligan passed away on Saturday 2 March following a short battle with cancer. He was a well respected and highly valued colleague at Geoscience Australia and to many in the Australian and international IAGA and MTNET communities.
Peter's funeral will be held in Canberra on Thursday 14 March. His family have asked that no flowers be sent. If anyone would like to make a donation in lieu of flowers, please send it to support research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne (https://foundation.petermac.org/donate-today).
Peter is survived by his wife Ann and three adult children.
Below are some reflections from Peter's Geoscience Australia colleagues.
Vale Peter.
Adrian
Adrian Hitchman
Geoscience Australia
adrian.hitchman@ga.gov.au
It is with much sadness that we note the passing of Dr Peter Milligan, a long term employee of Geoscience Australia, on Saturday 2nd March 2019.
Peter joined the Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) in 1985 and retired from Geoscience Australia (GA) 29 years later in 2014. Over this time period, Peter became an institution in the fields of geomagnetism, magnetotellurics, airborne surveying, and non-seismic geophysical data processing. Having taught maths and science at secondary schools prior to joining the BMR, he was well trained as a mentor and a tutor. But more than this, he was incredibly generous with his time and knowledge. He would patiently share his insights, or if the need arose, jump straight in to help out. His presence would instantly bringing a sense of confidence to any team that he joined since he demonstrated over and over that he could play a key part in bringing large projects to completion.
In the later part of his career, Peter played a leading role in the expansion of magnetotelluric surveying within GA. But he may be best known for his contribution to the AWAGS long baseline aeromagnetic and radiometric traverse project, and the subsequent production of the 5th and 6th editions of the Magnetic Anomaly Grids of Australia in 2010 and 2015 respectively. These were massive undertakings. More than 30 million line km of low level airborne survey data from over 800 individual surveys were combined and levelled to produce a high fidelity grid of magnetic data that covers the entire continent. This was an internationally-recognised achievement, the envy of every other geoscience organisation outside Australia.
The Magnetic Map of Australia that Peter produced adorns the walls and pin-up boards of hundreds of geoscience organisations, businesses, universities, and consultancies. It has a prominent place here in the foyer at GA - cast your eye high up on the huge cloth banner that hangs against one of the lift wells. The coloured TMI magnetic image of Australia must also have appeared in thousands of presentations given by GA staff. Despite this widespread distribution and usage, most would not be able to say who produced these products - Peter was the epitome of the quiet achiever and never sought out the recognition that he deserved.
Peter was an executive committee member of the Task Force of the World Digital Magnetic Anomaly Map, the recipient of an ASEG Service Certificate in 2016, author or co-author of numerous scientific publications, and the recipient of countless GA awards. To most of us, however, he was simply the quietest, kindest, happiest, most valued fellow team member of the geophysics section of GA that we have known.
Peace and comfort be with you, Peter.
Online obituary: