The concept of Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) came to CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, Australia) scientist Dr Alan Walsh in a flash of inspiration as he was gardening at his Melbourne home. This led to an invention that has since been labelled as one of the most significant achievements in chemical analysis last century. It allows the measurement of extremely small amounts of elements and has applications in every field from medicine to mining.

Sir Alan Wals