100 years of Physics at VUW

On Thursday this week, we celebrated 100 years of Physics at VUW. The early professors were all appointed on the recommendation of Rutherford, first Laby, from 1910 to 1914, then Marsden, who dashed straight back to the war in 1914, and then Florance who stayed for nearly 3 decades.

In my VUW student days the Head of Department was Darcy Walker, wearing the bow tie in the photo above. Standing to his left on the right hand side of the photo is Noel Chapman, the professor of Nuclear Physics during the 1960s. Chapman and Walker were my brother Jim's PhD supervisors. Jim is the handsome fellow near the centre of the photo, to Darcy Walker's right. It was because of Jim's example that I ended up doing physics. Behind them all is the control console of the 500 keV Van de Graaf accelerator, their research tool for low energy nuclear physics.

I remember one particularly inspiring teacher at Vic, the late Professor Norman Barber. When I took quantum mechanics with Norman, I fell in love with the subject. Norman's grandchildren, Jacqui and Felix are both current VUW students in chemistry and physics. Felix is lab assistant in our NMR research team.

I spoke at the celebration, taking the opportunity to give a brief sample of a Barber lecture on atoms. Norman's son Peter and daughter Mary were present, along with Mary's young son, Louis. I think I saw Louis's eyes light up when I drew, on the blackboard, those Barber 2p orbitals with their quantum mechanical phase. In front of the 150 people present, I was able to tell him that he may not have known his grandad, but he could take it from me that he had been a great scientist and a fine teacher.

It was a most enjoyable evening, with visitors staying on late to tour labs and to chat. Many of the older cohort were present, including Noel Chapman and Darcy Walker. Remarkable survivors, both of them!