The Thomas H. Laby medal is awarded annually
to the outstanding Honours Physics student(s) in Victoria from the preceding
year.
It is fitting that the honouring of
Professor Thomas Laby with the award of this medal should be associated with
research students. During his tenure as Professor of Physics at the University
of Melbourne from 1915 to his retirement in 1944, we find that in spite of a
heavy teaching load and next to no financial support, Laby, his academic staff
and research students produced a steady flow of research papers in a number of
disparate fields.
He is best known for his researches not only in the subject of heat but more
particularly in the application of radioactivity and X-rays. In the latter
field there are contributions as broadly based as the quantitative analysis of
alloys, fundamental processes in atomic structure, as well as the application to
cancer therapy. In fact, the production of radon for hospital use was pioneered
in Australia with the installation of the Commonwealth of Australia's supply of
radium within Laby's department. This activity initiated the evolution of what
was to become known as the Australian Radiation Laboratory.
Laby was also responsible for the application of physics to problems relating
to the war effort, especially in WW2 where, as Chairman of the Optical Munitions
Panel, he was in a position to encourage the development of both the manufacture
of optical glass, as achieved by his colleague Ernst Hartung, as well as the
manufacture of optical instruments in his own department.
A warm tribute was paid to Laby by his friend of lifelong standing, Sir Mark
Oliphant, who in 1990, in an article in The Australian magazine entitled
"Australians of the Century - Who are the people who have been most influential
in shaping the nation in the last 90 years?", included alongside the names of
Howard Florey and David Rivett in his list of twenty - that of Thomas Howell
Laby - as a scientist "noted for his research into radioactivity".
Rules and procedure
The Heads of University Physics Departments in Victoria are
invited around December each year to nominate the best Honours Physics student
of that year for the award.
Each institution may make a single nomination. Where an
institution is unable to identify a single best student, it may present a case
to the Branch Committee to nominate the students it considers equal best. If
the Branch Committee agrees to allow this, then each nomination will be treated
as a separate nomination.
There may be joint winners, though the Branch Committee
asks the selection panel each year to make every effort to recommend a single
winner.
Background on Professor Thomas H. Laby
(compiled from various sources)
THOMAS HOWELL LABY
1880 - 1946
Thomas Laby is among a handful of distinguished Australian scientists
who flourished in Australia between the two world wars. Born in Creswick,
Victoria, in 1880, he soon moved with his family to Sydney where he commenced
his academic career. After an unusual undergraduate career, for he
never matriculated, Laby took his PhD at the Cavendish Laboratory, University
of Cambridge, under the supervision of Sir J. J. Thomson.
After a short period as Professor of Physics at Victoria University
College, Wellington, New Zealand, he proceeded to the University of Melbourne
where he remained as Professor of Natural Philosophy (i.e., Physics) until
his retirement in 1944. This period was characterised by Laby's insistence
on research activity as being an important and essential part of any academic
activity. His research areas covered investigations concerned with
the measurement of the magnitude of physical quantities, of which the charge
of the electron and the mechanical equivalent of heat are but two examples.
His research interests were wide and we find his department involved not
only with problems of heat but more particularly with the application of
X-rays and radioactivity. With all this research, Laby carried a
large work load of undergraduate teaching and departmental administration.
However, one of his most lasting contributions for which he should continue
to be remembered and honoured was his care in the supervision of postgraduate
students. At a time when there was little encouragement for research
and even less in the way of research funds, Laby was to foster and encourage
a whole contingent of students who proceeded to the MSc degree with him.
Thereafter, he was able to persuade his long-time friend, Ernest Rutherford,
the Director of the Cavendish Laboratory, to take on his students for the
PhD degree, a level which at that time was not available at any Australian
University. In a remarkable run, his department was able to gain
12 out of the 17 "Exhibition of 1851" Scholarships offered for Physics
to applicants from Australia and New Zealand, peaking with 7 between 1931
and 1939.
In many ways, Laby was a man before his time and as a result was often
at loggerheads with the university administration. His interests
were broad and stretched out into the community. He was secretary
to the Round Table Movement, an association set up to foster and maintain
imperial links between the Dominions. His influence is to be found
in the encouragement of the use of X-rays and radium gamma rays for the
treatment of cancer; his department was the original repository of the
Commonwealth supply of radium and was the nucleus for the development which
led ultimately to the establishment of the Australian Radiation Laboratory.
Following his insistence on the importance of research, Laby was an
early protagonist for the institution of a National University, not merely
for the purposes of examining, but more importantly as a research institution;
that was a theme that was taken up strongly by others during the 1930's.
Laby was keen to contribute to the requirements of defence and we find
him involved with the production of a gas mask as well as routine radiographic
testing during WW1. His contributions in WW2 as chairman of the optical
munitions panel with the successful introduction of the production of optical
glass by Ernst Hartung, and the design and production of optical instruments
have been the subject of a good deal of writing.
