Physics News
Spring 2015
A visionary
transformation of
physics
By Honorary Associate Professor Robert Hewitt
School of Physics Alum, BSc (1965), PhD (1968)
At the time of his acceptance, the
Department was moribund with
only four permanent academic staff
assisted by a number of casual staff
in delivering undergraduate courses
containing little 20th century physics.
The Commonwealth Government
had recently established the
Australian National University as the
sole provider of research training
at doctoral level and provided
no research funding to the State
universities. The iconic building
the Department shared with the
mathematics departments was still
not completely finished due to lack
of funds and in a very run down state.
Harry had a plan to change all this and
the steely determination and energy
to implement it.
The University had agreed to appoint
twelve additional permanent staff
and allocate the substantial Denison
Bequest to the Department. It
also directed to Physics 15% of
the £40,000 it allocated explicitly
each year to its departments for
research. Over the next few years it
carried out major works (£80,000)
on the Physics Building, bringing
it to a more acceptable condition.
All of this allowed Harry to begin
his transformation by revising the
undergraduate curriculum to include
more modern physics and to perform
his theoretical and experimental
nuclear physics research. However
resources still fell short of what was
required and he decided to approach
business and the wider community for
financial support.
In 1954 Harry established the Nuclear
Research Foundation (now the Physics
Foundation), the first of its kind in the
British Commonwealth. Four of its
new members contributed a total of
£250,000 to the Foundation during
its first few years (approximately
$8.5 million today) and the NSW and
Commonwealth Governments each
contributed a further £50,000.
Continued on page 3...
30 year old Harry Messel as the newly
appointed Head of School.
Page 1
Thirty-year old Harry Messel accepted
the Chair of Physics at the University
of Sydney in 1952 only after the
University agreed to support him
in his efforts to transform the then
Physics Department into one capable
of carrying out world class research,
of attracting high level academic staff
and of educating students to doctoral
and postdoctoral level.
Head of School
sydney.edu.au/physics
Head of School report
Much of this issue is devoted to tributes to the late
Harry Messel, who passed away on 8 July 2015 at the
age of 93. Professor Messel was Head of the School
of Physics from 1952 to 1987, and he continued to
maintain close ties to the School throughout the rest
of his life.
School of Physics
During my time as Head over the past
three years, I have enjoyed many
stimulating and thought-provoking
conversations with Harry. Even in
his nineties, he was a passionate and
formidable advocate for the causes
he believed in, so what he was like in
his younger years I can only imagine!
Page 2
The University of Sydney
Professor Tim Bedding, Head of School
On 18 September, we held a memorial
service for Harry Messel in the Great
Hall of the University. This was a
wonderful event, attended by many
of Harry’s family, colleagues and
friends. Tributes were given by Dame
Marie Bashir (former Chancellor
of the University), Nicolas Messel
and Michael Winternitz (Harry’s
grandsons), Albert Wong (President
of the Physics Foundation), Professor
John Mattick (Director of the Garvin
Institute of Medical Research and
ISS scholar from 1966), Emeritus
Professor Richard Collins (former
Head of the School of Physics), and
Dr Michael Spence (Vice Chancellor
of the University of Sydney). The
event was a fitting tribute to a giant
of Australian science, a man who
dedicated his life to the pursuit of
excellence.
We are also sorry to report the
passing of Associate Professor
Murray Winn. Murray was appointed
as a lecturer in the School’s Falkiner
Nuclear Department in 1959 and
retired in 1988, but remained very
active almost to the end. Murray
was brilliant in electronics, with an
intrinsic feel for the subject. One
career highlight was his design and
implementation of a large cosmic ray
air shower array - SUGAR - situated
near Narrabri in the Pilliga State
Forest. The brilliant concept was
to link all the recording stations
stretched over almost 100 square
kilometres, not by cables, but by
time-coded radio signals recorded
continuously at each station.
Coincidences were then searched
for in the computer records. The
concept was ground-breaking
and has since been replicated in
subsequent experiments around
the world. Murray was in charge of
the Senior Physics Laboratory from
1980 to 1988, and his love of science
showed in his experimental designs.
Many students were encouraged and
inspired by Murray’s enthusiasm for
physics. Murray died on 19 June 2015,
after a short stay in Greenwich Private
Hospital.
On a happier note, members of the
School continue to achieve great
success. Many congratulations to
Michael Biercuk on winning the
Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early
Career Researcher. This prize,
sponsored by Macquarie University,
was presented to Mike at Sydney Town
Hall at the 2015 Australian Museum
Eureka Prizes Award Dinner.
The SNH on the evening of the CIS Thank You event, Friday 14
August. Image: Professor Joss Bland-Hawthorn
The Sydney Nanoscience Hub (SNH) building, formerly known
as the AIN building project, is now complete and while many
students have been enjoying the new teaching spaces since
the beginning of Semester 2, it is the research business for
which everyone is holding their breath.
The SNH has been purpose built for nanoscience discovery
and for developing innovative nanotechnologies that harness
nanoscale materials and structures. In addition to Professor
Ben Eggleton’s lab for nanoscale photonics and phononics,
and Professor David Reilly’s and Associate Professor Mike
Biercuk’s labs for precision quantum science and quantum
control, the SNH also houses a state-of-the-art cleanroom.
When fully commissioned, the cleanroom will accommodate
university core facilities, including world-class nanolithography tools and a research prototyping foundry which
will enable development and translation of nanofabricated
devices such as nanoscale electronic chips integrated into
next-generation electronic circuit boards.
The Australian Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology
(AINST) has been established to engage the broader university
community in a research agenda that addresses the key
societal challenges of energy and environment, health and
medicine, communications, computing and security, as well
as pushing the frontiers of fundamental knowledge. To date,
the AINST community includes researchers from a total of 14
schools across the faculties of science, engineering, health
science, medicine and pharmacy. The interdisciplinary
research programme aims to cut across discipline boundaries
to create new opportunities for breakthrough discoveries in
nanoscience and for innovations in nanotechnology.
In 1959 Harry persuaded the University to break
from the long established practice in all British
style universities to have only one professor
per department and then formed the School
of Physics with internal “departments”, each
headed by a professor. This allowed him to
attract and retain high quality senior staff
and was a necessary prerequisite to establish
a true research university. He immediately
created five internal departments: Basser
Computing Department; Chatterton Astronomy
Department; Daily Telegraph Theoretical Physics
Department (later renamed Sir Frank Packer
Theoretical Department); Falkiner Nuclear
Physics Department; and Wills Thermonuclear
Physics Department (later renamed WD and
HO Wills Plasma Physics Department). The
names recognised the major early donors to the
Foundation. He then progressively recruited
prominent people as professors to head these
departments and successfully raised the funds
required to build the Narrabri Stellar Intensity
Interferometer, the Mills Cross and a replacement
for SILLIAC, The Cecil and Ida Green Computer.
The Astrophysics Department separated from the
Chatterton Department in 1965.
Spring 2015
More than a hundred other members paid an
annual membership fee which by 1961 provided
an annual income to the Foundation of more
than £100,000. This income was used to buy
equipment, to hire support staff, to pay salary
loadings to senior academics and to act as seed
funding for grants from other sources.
The School obtained the space necessary for
its expansion when the Carslaw Building was
constructed in 1962 and the Physics Annexe in
1964. In 1976 Harry created the Environmental
Physics Department incorporating the crocodile
telemetry group that he headed for 15 years
and in 1980 the Applied Physics Department
incorporating the evacuated tube solar thermal
group.
Physics News
By Professor Zdenka Kuncic
Director, Community and Research, Australian Institute for
Nanoscale Science and Technology (AINST)
Many other organisations followed Harry’s
example and established foundations and this
inevitably reduced the philanthropic income
available to the School. By this stage however the
School was strong enough to obtain the requisite
funds from the newly established competitive
research grant schemes. Harry was extremely
proud that his successors built on his legacy to
create the impressive School of today.
Page 3
SNH Update
Continued from cover
sydney.edu.au/physics
Emeritus Professor Harry Messel (1922 – 2015)
A legacy of excellence and an
exceptional Head of School
By Professor Anne Green
School of Physics Alum, (PhD) 1973
Page 4
The University of Sydney
School of Physics
Physics Heads of School 1952 to
present (L-R): Professor Tim Bedding,
Professor Anne Green, Professor Brian
James, Emeritus Professor Harry Messel
AC CBE, Emeritus Professor Richard
Collins, Emeritus Professor Max Brenan
AO and Professor Don Melrose at the 60th
Anniversary of the Physics Foundation
in March 2014. Not present: Professor
Lawrence Cram and Professor Clive Baldock.
With the passing of Emeritus
Professor Harry Messel AC CBE
on 8 July 2015, Australia lost a
formidable champion of the pursuit
of excellence in scientific research
and education. He was 93. One of
his oft-repeated quotes is “A life
lived in pursuit of excellence is a life
well lived.” Harry was a visionary, a
powerful intellect, charismatic and
very persuasive, and he leaves an
enduring legacy.
When Harry was offered the position
of Head of the School of Physics
in 1952 at the University of Sydney,
having just left the University of
Adelaide, the then Vice-Chancellor
at Sydney, Sir Stephen Roberts,
made the following comment to the
Senate, “while the tribulations of
the administration will probably be
added to by this dynamic personality,
the Department of Physics will gain
increasing international reputation”.
It is amazing to recall that at 30 years
of age, he was appointed Head of
the School, a position he held for 35
years, from 1952 until 1987.
Harry was extraordinary in not
only appointing an unprecedented
number of outstanding young
professors of physics, but he also
provided the resources for them to
undertake world-class research. As
a consequence, the international
reputation of Physics at Sydney
did grow rapidly. One of Harry’s
big successes was persuading the
National Science Foundation of the
USA to donate nearly $US 1 million
to fund construction of the Mills
Cross, designed by Bernard Mills,
one of Harry’s star professors. This
telescope was opened in November
1965 by the then Prime Minister, Sir
Robert Menzies. It is still a leading
research facility and celebrates
50 years of important science
discoveries this year.
My personal interactions with
Harry started when I arrived from
Melbourne University to undertake
a PhD with Bernie Mills. Like several
other non-Sydney students, I had to
redo my Honours year, to convince
Harry I was up to scratch. As the first
female PhD student in Physics I was a
curiosity but pleased to be in such an
exciting research environment. Harry
was an inspirational and charismatic
figure as Head of School, with a
booming voice and boundless energy.
It was only years later when I became
the first female Head of School, that
I appreciated what an incredible
person Harry was in single-handedly
enabling so much outstanding
research to occur. He demanded we
all give our best effort always. In fact,
it was Harry and the televising of the
lectures from the Summer Science
School (later the International
Science School) that first kindled
my interest in physics. Harry was a
dynamic advocate for the importance
of education at both secondary and
tertiary levels, setting the bar high
without any apology. Hard work was
his recipe for success. Harry’s legacy
will endure in many domains and his
focus on the “pursuit of excellence”
will remain a touchstone for the
thousands of students and scientists
that he inspired.
Today new elementary particles are discovered
at accelerators. In the 1940s and 50s Cosmic Ray
interactions was where exciting new particle physics
discoveries were being made. It is no surprise that
he devoted himself to Cosmic Ray physics, both as a
student and then in Adelaide and Sydney. About the
time he came to Sydney he wrote an invited review
chapter on The Development of a Nucleon Cascade for
the 1953 edition of Progress in Cosmic Ray Physics.
Before arriving in Australia in 1951,
Harry had already written 14 papers
and wrote 5 more in the rest of 1951. In
the 21st Century when there is so much
pressure to publish it is not unusual to
write more than 14 papers as a result of
one’s PhD, but in the mid-20th Century
it was remarkable — so remarkable
that, when writing a reference in
connection with Harry’s application for
the Chair in Sydney, Schrödinger said
that Harry’s eagerness for his research
was “unparalleled by anything I have
met with before (although I have been
teaching physics since 1911)”.
By the mid 1950s he was concentrating his work on
electron-photon showers. Electrons are a common
product of the interaction of high energy particles
with matter. When they have a sufficiently high energy
they produce photons when passing through matter.
High energy photons interact with nuclei to produce
electron-positron pairs, This goes on to produce a
shower of particles, called an electron-photon shower.
By the early 1960s Messel and his collaborators were
producing the standard work in this field. This was
codified in 1970 in the 1,512-page book, Electron Shower
Distribution Functions, by Harry Messel and David
Crawford. This book and the papers on which it is based
are the basis for the verification of modern computer
programs characterising showers. Until those programs
came into widespread use in the 1990s the work of
Messel and Crawford was used in the design of modern
particle detectors, and summarised in the particle
physicist’s handbook — The Review of Particle Physics.
Spring 2015
After his war service and his undergraduate double
degree, a BA with honours in mathematics and a BSc
with honours in Engineering Physics, he then went on to
do his PhD at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
There he was supervised by Erwin Schrödinger (one
of the co-discovers of Quantum Mechanics) and Lajos
Janossy, graduating in 1951.
Physics News
By Professor Bruce H J McKellar AC, Honorary
Professorial Fellow at University of Melbourne CoEPP
School of Physics Alum, BSc Hons (1962), PhD (1966)
Harry had started his physics work on Cosmic Rays
because that was the physics frontier of the time.
His physics research produced results, which are
fundamental to the design of those detectors now used
at accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC),
where the long-sought Higgs Boson was discovered in
2013.
Page 5
Harry the
theoretical
physicist
All of us think about Harry Messel’s great achievements
in bringing great physicists to Sydney University and
finding the resources for them to carry our their
research. In these few words I want to remind us all
that Harry was a first rate theoretical physicist whose
work has had significant impact on our understanding of
Cosmic Ray shower development and on the design of
particle physics detectors.
Messel Memories
sydney.edu.au/physics
By one who was a research student in the early years of his reign:
Associate Professor Ian Johnston, Sydney University Physics
Education Research Group, School of Physics Alum, PhD 1964
I first became aware of Harry in the late 1950s. This was a period of
great advances in physics, but by and large, Australian universities
were sleepy backwaters, teaching physics much as it had been
taught before the War. This was especially true of the University of
Queensland, where I was a student.
Then one day in 1958 Harry gave a talk to the Queensland Institute of
Physics. It was aimed directly at recent graduates, and its message
was: come to where the action is. Come to where first years attended
courses on modern physics that other universities taught at fourth
year level; and where researchers get to work on the legendary
automatic computer, SILLIAC. Fired with enthusiasm I pulled up my
roots and went to Sydney.
Page 6
The University of Sydney
School of Physics
I met Harry face-to-face on my first day. I was summoned to his office,
and what an impressive office it was — potted plants, bear skin rug on
the floor, “dragon lady” in the anteroom. The meeting was pretty well
in/out, and the only message I took away was: “We don’t want slackers
round here.” It turned out that grad students from other universities
were asked to show they were not slacking by spending a year taking
Sydney’s honours lecture course. Eventually they got to start a project
of their own, and to meet the famous SILLIAC.
As computer users, the job of the research student (or other
academic) was to prepare the data for the computer to process. It was
fed into the machine in the form of holes in a long paper tape. The
people who actually did the feeding in and other hands-on stuff, were
the operators. It was good strategy for the (mostly male) research
students to get to know the (mostly female) operators who might be
persuaded to advance one’s job higher in the queue.
The University of Sydney’s springboard to the
technological revolution, SILLIAC is the first
high-performance, automatic, stored program
digital computer to be built in Australia.
At its peak SILLIAC ran twenty-four hours a
day, seven days a week and was used by over
2,000 people. In the mid 1960s it was used in
Australia’s first networking experiments.
It was surely inevitable that the two groups should find other interests,
outside the rarefied life of academic research, and in the early 1960s
there were several marriages between operators, programmers and
post-docs, including my own. When Harry was informed about what
was going on, his unsolicited advice was: “Don’t get married till you’ve
got your Ph.D.” (It was ignored.)
Eventually the Ph.D. thesis was submitted, and the next question
was where to go if you wanted gain wider research experience in an
overseas institution. It turns out that Harry had many connections
in the international field, and in early 1960s he established a staff/
student exchange scheme with Cornell University, known as the
Cornell-Sydney University Astronomy Center (CSUAC). In a period of
four or five years, nine Sydney graduates (including me) took advantage
of this scheme.
All in all, the early 1960s was a good time to be a research student in
Harry Messel’s School of Physics.
“My motto has always
been honouring
excellence, and the
School has honoured that
beautifully.”
Spring 2015
Honouring Excellence:
The International
Science School
Harry Messel
By Dr Chris Stewart, ISS Program Director
More than 50 years later, the
Professor Harry Messel International
Science School continues to
celebrate the success of our
brightest students, challenges them
to pursue their interests, and helps
them to forge new friendships across
the globe.
The program’s international flavour
grew stronger over the decades, with
students travelling to Sydney from
Canada, China, India, Japan, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Thailand, the UK and
the USA to meet those selected from
every state and territory of Australia.
For the last decade five scholarships
have been awarded to talented
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
students through the ISS Indigenous
Scholars Program.
The first Science School, held in 1958,
was aimed at high school science
teachers, but after four years Harry
shifted the focus to encouraging
talented young students towards
further studies and careers in
science. In 1962 the first cohort of
While in 1962 the students travelled
from home or were billeted in Sydney,
today all students stay in university
college accommodation for the
entire two-week event. Each day they
take part in a diverse program of
inspirational talks on the frontiers of
science, tours of research labs and
hands-on experiments — along with
a packed social program — designed
not just to fuel their passion for
science, but to present the rich
possibilities of a scientific career.
Through the generosity of hundreds
of donors, sponsors, friends and
supporters over many years, the
Physics Foundation and School of
Physics continue to offer the ISS
program entirely free of charge to
every student.
Physics News
“scholars” — 151 students from across
NSW and the ACT, and two from New
Zealand — gathered at the School of
Physics for an inspiring lecture series,
with topics including the burgeoning
NASA space program by the great
rocket scientist Werner von Braun,
and the structure of the universe by
renowned cosmologist Sir Hermann
Bondi.
Page 7
One of Harry Messel’s most cherished
principles was the importance of
honouring excellence. Seeking to
nurture the talent he saw in school
science classrooms in the 1960s, he
created an innovative program that
introduced young science students
to some of the world’s leading
researchers, and showed them the
possibilities of a future in science.
By Honorary Professor Brian McInnes, Founding Head of Sydney
University Physics Eduation Research Group
In the early 1950’s, science education in schools in NSW and, for that
matter, across Australia and the western world was moribund. Certainly
in NSW little, if any, science originating in the 20th century was part
of the curriculum while textbooks were few and generally far from
uninspiring. The most useful of these, written by Booth and Nicol, was
first published in 1931 and had been little changed for thirty years. With
few exceptions, the study of physics was restricted to boys; the study of
chemistry mostly, but far from entirely, restricted to boys; while botany,
geology and biology were generally regarded as suitable sciences for a
few girls and even fewer boys.
This situation was anathema to Harry Messel, the new, forward-looking
Professor of Physics at the University of Sydney. Fortunately at this very
time, the recently appointed Director of Education, Harold Wyndham,
had set up a Committee that was charged with making substantial
changes to the structure of secondary school education in the State.
The Report of this Committee was the basis of significant changes in
secondary education.
The University of Sydney
School of Physics
sydney.edu.au/physics
The book that revolutionised
science education
“I tried to produce
textbooks for the
compulsory sciences
for the first four years of
high school, and then the
final two years. This was
one of the most difficult
and most incredible jobs
of my lifetime.”
Page 8
Harry Messel
It was 1964 when the first edition of “The Blue Book”, Science for
High School Students, integrating Biology, Chemistry, Geology and
Physics in one compulsory four-year course for high school students
saw the light of day. A generation of schoolboys and schoolgirls were
introduced to science across the board through this famous Book and
its (varicoloured) companion volumes.
The new six-year science course was integrated in its first four years
and co-ordinated in the last two. It is interesting to note that although
secondary school educators across the world had been working towards
the development of such a scheme for some years before this, NSW was
first in the world to implement it – predating the well-known Physical
Science Study Committee (PSSC) and Harvard Project Physics schemes.
Harry was proud of this.
In 1968, the Blue Book was adapted for use in the UK.
In the course, traditional deadwood was ruthlessly eliminated and
students were to be taken to the ‘frontiers of science’ and shown the
‘big ideas’ that were energising modern science. Not one but a whole
series of textbooks were required to cover the scope and breadth of
the integrated and co-ordinated science. Harry carried the Science
Foundation for Physics into financing this task and publishing the books.
Both visionary and practical: Harry was well aware of inherent problems
but enthused to strive unrelentingly for the pursuit of excellence. What
he did for school science education was a striking illustration of those
qualities.
The crocodile
champion
After examining Melville Island,
Harry’s second foray into the wilds
of Northern Australia was by a
land-based trip to the Goyder River,
exploring an area that drains out
of the immense Arafura Swamp in
central Arnhem Land. It became
obvious that if a crocodile research
project was to get traction that a
research vessel, an aircraft and land
bases, would be required.
As was typical of a person who could
miraculously raise millions of dollars
via phone calls, a research vessel
was built to Harry’s specifications
and paid for by Ampol Petroleum. A
Cessna 206 StationAir aircraft was
purchased and a base, at Maningrida,
in Arnhem Land, was acquired from
the NT Fisheries Department. A new
Department of Environmental Physics
was set up and biologist Dr. Grahame
Webb took over the initial running of
the crocodile project. A major effort
was also put into developing a 1.2
GHz solar-powered animal tracking
system.
By late 1974 Harry hired three
research assistants – Fred Duncan
from the University of Sydney; Dan
Grace, from USA, and myself from
UNSW – to assist in field operations.
In 1975 extensive saltwater crocodile
surveys were conducted across the
northern coastline of the Northern
Territory.
From 1976 to 1984 Harry was
involved in every crocodile survey
of tidal river systems in the NT, the
Kimberley Region of WA, and on
both the east and west coasts of
Cape York Peninsula in Queensland.
These surveys involved traversing
over 4,500km of tidal river and
creek systems, with many repeat
visits to the river systems. His
work resulted in accurate baseline
estimations of saltwater crocodile
populations in northern Australia.
Mark-recaptures of saltwater
crocodiles established baseline
spotting percentage fractions
that could be relied upon. The
surveys, often in most inhospitable
conditions, were undertaken seven
days and nights a week, month after
month, year after year. The results
speak for themselves in a series of
twenty books on saltwater crocodile
populations.
Harry never shirked any work in
Northern Australia. He cleaned the
boats, assisted in the capture of
over 1,000 crocodiles, provided the
impetus to get the animal tracking
system perfected, analysed and
reanalysed the crocodile survey
results, and interacted with the
Aboriginal communities – some of
whom had only met white people
after the Second World War. Through
his political contacts, he stopped the
slaughter of crocodiles in Australia
and commercial whaling at Cheynes
Beach in WA. He was also responsible
for the appointment of Silas Roberts,
the first Chairman of the Northern
Land Council, to become the first
Aboriginal Magistrate in Australia, and
was heavily involved in the protection
of what is now known as Kakadu
National Park.
Physics News
It all arose after the failure of a
joint venture between the School of
Physics and Lockheed Corporation
on tracking polar bears at Point
Barrow in Alaska. The object of
the research was to work on an
animal that occupied an extreme
environment on land and in the water
and saltwater crocodiles became the
next cab off the rank.
Harry sharing copies of the survey with an Aboriginal
community leader.
Page 9
At age 50, Professor Harry
Messel embarked on a
mission that was to become
the Crocodile Research
Facility in the Northern
Territory of Australia.
Spring 2015
By Dr Graeme Wells, Research Assistant to
Professor Harry Messel from 1974 – 1986
Teaching science and persistence
sydney.edu.au/physics
By Shiva Ford
Stephanie Momsen is a science teacher at Kandos High School, a
country school 40 kilometres south of Mudgee, NSW. Currently in her
first year, she has already been assigned to teach across year levels: 7 to
10 junior science, 11 and 12 senior physics, special education, and sport.
Page 10
The University of Sydney
School of Physics
“Teaching makes me the happiest.
It allows me to talk about science
and provoke curiosity, wonder and
engagement in others. I can go from
teaching the immune system to the
periodic table to electromagnetic
induction in a single day,” Steph says
about being a teacher.
“[Harry] loved to tell
the ISS students to do
physics. He would do
so loudly, repeatedly,
and with the occasional
swear word.”
Physics team also helped crystallise
her career as a high school science
teacher.
Studying at the School of Physics was
filled with incredible opportunities
for Steph, including working with
Professor Tim Bedding and Dr Dennis
Stello on an asteroseismology project
as well as with Professor Peter
Robinson and Dr Svetlana Postnova
on programming brain dynamics. She
also took with her an important life
lesson: one should not spend three
hours taking measurements at the
laboratory without checking if all the
equipment is turned on!
She always knew she wanted to
become a scientist, but attending the
Professor Harry Messel International
Science School in 2005 made her
realise her passion for physics. The
two-week program gave her some
insights on the breadth and depth of
the subjects studied at the School of
Physics, a greater understanding of
what physics research looks like in the When she looks back to the time
real world, and a group of friends that she was at the University, Steph is
she’s still in touch with today. “There
astounded by how much she and
aren’t many places where you can tell her friends have grown and changed.
quantum physics joke and having the “Three years isn’t really that long, but
whole room laugh,” she recalls of her
the things I could do at the end of my
experience at the ISS.
degree were light years ahead of what
I could do at the start.”
Steph remembers Harry very fondly.
“He loved to tell the ISS students to
Steph appreciates the social
do physics. He would do so loudly,
responsibilities that come with
repeatedly, and with the occasional
teaching, which range from modelling
swear word. In a lecture at ISS 2007,
positive behaviour to giving her
a Big Name Biologist told everyone
students the tools to make good
they should be doing biology. Harry
decisions on subjects like vaccination
stood up and told everyone he agreed and climate change. She would also
with the biologist. To me this was like
like her students to realise that
hearing that up is down, black is white they also hold the potential for
and 2 + 2 =5. Then Harry continued,
amazing growth, and that persistence
‘You can do Biology, so long as you do
more than anything else is the key
Physics first!’ Normality was restored!” to unlocking that potential. This
unsurprisingly rings of a famous
The ISS paved Steph’s path towards
Messel-ism: all matter consists of
studying physics at the University of
atoms; all knowledge – of hard work.
Sydney. Being part of the Kickstart
Our goal is for the School of Physics to
be a leader in the University in actions
and initiatives in this area. To that end
we have already asked current staff and
students about their experiences and
perspectives in a survey late last year.
That feedback is now being analysed.
Now we are seeking your help, as alumni
of the School, to better understand
these issues. We would appreciate your
perspective on the work environment and
culture in the School and in particular,
how they might have influenced your
future career path. We are also keen to
have input on how we might ensure that
the School is an inclusive place where
everyone feels valued and can do their
best work.
Please take 10 minutes to complete the
Alumni Survey at www.surveymonkey.
com/r/peac-alumni-survey. It is
anonymous and we will report back the
results, along with the perspectives
already provided by people currently in
the School.
We also welcome comments directly to
the Chairs of the committee, Anne Green
and John O’Byrne, via email:
[email protected]
When you were at School of Physics, did you ever wonder
where your studies would take you? What path your career
would follow and how you’d get to where you are today? We
want to know where your degree has taken you and invite
you to share your story with us.
Alumni are vital to our ongoing success and actively
contribute to the School’s future; through inspiring future
generations; and sharing knowledge and experience.
Spring 2015
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equity
We want to hear
your story
If you would like to have your story profiled in Physics News
and/or on the Physics website, please contact:
Tom Gordon on 02 9351 3201 or
[email protected]
Editor: Shiva Ford
Contributors: Contributors: Tim Bedding, Anne Green,
Robert Hewitt, Ian Johnston, Brian McInnes, Bruce McKellar,
John O’Byrne, Chris Stewart and Graeme Wells
Physics News Contact
Shiva Ford
School of Physics A28
The University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia
E [email protected]
T +61 2 9036 6188
F + 61 2 9351 7726
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Printed with support from
The University of Sydney Physics Foundation
© The School of Physics, September 2015
Physics News
In the last Physics News we introduced
you to PEAC – the Physics Equity and
Access Committee – which aims to ensure
that the School of Physics is a fair and
equitable workplace for students and
staff. Our work to date can be seen on
our web page at
Page 11
PEAC
update
sydney.edu.au/physics
Dr Karl
Madame Curie
– the pioneer of
radioactivity
The University of Sydney
School of Physics
By Dr Karl Kruszelnicki,
Julius Sumner Miller Fellow
WW1 killed about 9 million military
and 7 million civilians. Furthermore,
over 22 million military were seriously
injured or disabled.
She struggled against abject poverty
and prior inadequate preparation
to finish first in her Master’s Degree
Physics in 1893.
This created a huge need for
medical care – including “imaging”.
X-rays images can easily show
bullets, shrapnel, broken bones or
pneumonia. Within 18 months of the
Great War starting, France had not
only built up its X-ray tube industry –
but was also supplying its allies. But
the X-ray machines of the day were
bulky and delicate. They were fine in
hospitals – but the carnage on the
battlefields demanded mobile X-ray
facilities.
In 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen discovered
X-rays. Soon Henri Becquerel found
that Uranium emitted “rays” that
could fog photographic plates. In
April 1898, Marie Curie (now married)
discovered that Thorium also emitted
these “rays” – and invented the word
“radioactivity”. By December, she
and her husband, Pierre Curie, had
discovered two more radioactive
elements – Polonium and Radium. In
December 1903, Henri Becquerel and
Pierre and Marie Curie were jointly
awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
Enter Marie Curie, born in 1867
as Marie Sklodowska. Early on,
she realized her skills lay in maths
and physical sciences. In those
unenlightened times, she took her
education where she could – maths by
mail with her father, chemistry from
a chemist in a beet-sugar factory,
etc. By 1891, aged 24, she had saved
enough to study at University of Paris.
In 1906, Pierre Curie was killed
instantly in a traffic accident. She
was invited to take up her husband’s
position, and became the first female
professor at the University of Paris. In
1910, the “Curie” was defined as a unit
of radioactivity.
During WWI, she established the
first military radiology centres in the
battlefield and set up mobile X-ray
vans to go to the injured. The French
soldiers called these mobile X-ray
vans petites Curies (little Curies).
Marie Curie had a Nobel Prize for her
work in X-rays, but no experience with
medical uses. So she studied human
anatomy, radiology, auto-mechanics
and learnt to drive. With her 17-yearold daughter, Irene, they drove to
work on the battlefields. Later, Irene
and her husband won the 1935 Nobel
Prize for Chemistry.
Marie Curie died in 1934 of Aplastic
Pernicious Anemia, due to radiation
exposure. Six decades later, the
remains of Pierre and Marie Curie
were re-interred in the Pantheon,
France’s national mausoleum.
© Karl S. Kruszelnicki Pty Ltd 2015
Page 12
For more information
School of Physics
+61 2 9036 6188
[email protected]
sydney.edu.au/science/physics
Produced by the School of Physics, the University of Sydney, September 2015.
The University reserves the right to make alterations to any information contained
within this publication without notice. CRICOS 00026A