ROBERT (BOB) MATHEWS

Bob Mathews is Head, NBC Arms Control in the Human Protection and Performance Division of the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). He began his career in DSTO with the award of a Department of Supply cadetship in 1968. His early career focussed on mass spectrometry, including research into mass spectral fragmentation processes of chemical warfare agents and the development of computerised pattern recognition methods applicable to mass spectrometry information systems. In the late 1970s, he began research on the detection of toxic vapours in the atmosphere, in particular by ion mobility spectrometry, and was actively involved in the development of the UK Chemical Agent Monitor (CAM). His main current scientific research interest is the development of analytical methods to support verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

Mathews served as Scientific Adviser to the Australian Delegation to the Conference on Disarmament from 1984 until 1992. Since 1993, he has provided scientific support to the Australian delegation to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), based in The Hague. He has also provided support to Australia’s efforts towards to non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), including support for the Australia Group export licensing measures since its inception in 1985, and in the efforts to develop a Verification Protocol and other methods to strengthen the BWC. More recently he has become involved in the application of various counter-proliferation measures and UN Security Council Resolution 1540 as a means to raise the barriers to terrorist groups acquiring WMD. He has also made many visits to regional countries to participate in arms control consultations and regional workshops, including providing guidance on the national implementation of the BWC and CWC.

Since 1991, he has been collaborating with the Faculty of Law at the University of Melbourne on various scientific / legal aspects of arms control. In 2001, he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law (APCML) at the University of Melbourne, and in 2002 he was appointed Principal Fellow / Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Melbourne.

He was awarded the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Secretary’s Award in 1993 and an Order of Australia Medal in 1994 for his contribution to disarmament. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) in 1995, and became a member of the International Verification Consultants Network of the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC, London) in 1998. In 2003, he was awarded a Doctor of Science degree for his published work and other contributions to chemical and biological defence and arms control. In 2004, he was appointed to the OPCW Scientific Advisory Board, and in 2006 he was appointed to the Informal Board of Experts of the Interpol Bioterrorism Prevention Project.