Grant, Kerr (1878 - 1967)

Summary

Sir Kerr Grant was acting Professor of Physics, University of Adelaide 1909-1911 and Professor 1911-1948. He was Chairman of the Optical Munitions Panel 1944-1946.

A portrait bust of Grant made by John Dowie is held by the South Australian Institute of Technology where Grant was a President.

Details

Chronology

1901

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Melbourne

1901 - 1902

Career position - Lecturer in Mathematics and Physics, Ballarat School of Mines, Victoria

1903

Career position - Worked at Ormond College, University of Melbourne

1903

Education - Master of Science (MSc), University of Melbourne

1904

Education - Studied at University of Göttingen in Germany (PhD?)

1905 - 1908

Career position - Lecturer in Natural Philosophy, University of Melbourne

1909 - 1911

Career position - Acting Professor of Physics, University of Adelaide

1911 - 1948

Career position - Professor of Physics, University of Adelaide

1921 -

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Physics), Australian National Research Council

1926

Career position - President, Section A (Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1937

Career event - Fellow, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)

1942 - 1943

Career position - President, Australian Branch, Institite of Physics

1942 - 1958

Career position - President, South Australian Institute of Technology (formerly School of Mines and Industries)

1944 - 1945

Career position - Chairman, Optical Munitions Panel

1947

Award - Knight Bachelor [Kt] - In recognition of service to Physics at Adelaide University

Related entries

Archival resources

Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide

• Kerr Grant - Records, 1901 - 1962, MSS 0075; Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide. Details
• Professor Sir Kerr Grant, 1878-1967 - Papers, c. 1905 - 1967, MS 0075; Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide. Details

University of Adelaide, Physics Department

• Kerr Grant - Records, 1924 - 1949; University of Adelaide, Physics Department. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Exhibition Papers, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/exhib_papers.htm. Details
• Sir Mark Oliphant, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/oliphant/oliphant.htm. Details
• The Giant's Eye: the Optical Munitions Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/omp/omp.htm. Details

Book Sections

• Tomlin, S. G., 'Grant, Sir Kerr (1878-1967), physicist and professor' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 77-79. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090080b.htm. Details
• Tomlin, S. G., 'Grant, Sir Kerr (1878-1967), physicist and professor' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 77-79, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/grant-sir-kerr-6456. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Obituary: Sir Kerr Grant', Australian Physicist, 4 (12) (1967), 209-210. Details
• Grant, Kerr, 'Thomas Ranken Lyle, 1860- 1944', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 5 (14) (1945), 33-49. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1945.0003. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6394325. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/93268868. Details
• 'Grant, Kerr (1878-1967)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-563401. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Grant, Kerr', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P000449p.htm. Details
• 'Grant, Kerr', in The Giant's Eye: the Optical Munitions Exhibition, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/omp/people/grant.htm. Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_g.html. Details
• Binnie, Anna, 'A Short History of the Australian Institute of Physics, Part 2: from the Formation of the Australian Branch of the Institute of Physics to the Establishment of the Australian Institute of Physics', Australian Physics, 44 (4) (2007), 128-137, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IN7sV_RIRljwstfZLa7pjQyvisDmp_m0/view?ts=65d6c651. Details
• Bolton, H. C., 'Optical Instruments in Australia in the 1939-45 War: successes and lost opportunities', Australian Physicist (1990). http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/bolton2.htm. Details
• Currie, George; Graham, John, The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901-1926 (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1966), 203 pp, https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/origins-csiro. pages 10, 47. Details
• Dahlitz, Ray, Secular who's who : a biographical directory of freethinkers, secularists, rationalists, humanists and others involved in Australia's secular movement from 1850 onwards (Balwyn, Victoria: R. Dahlitz, 1994), 192 pp. p.96. Details
• Mellor, D.P., 'Optical Munitions', Chapter 12 in Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series 4: Civil, volume 5 'The Role of Science and Industry', Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1958 (1958). http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/mellor.htm. Details
• Sherratt, Tim; Condé, Anne-Marie, A Wartime Observatory Observed - the Mount Stromlo Community, 1940-1945, Australian Science Archives Project, Canberra, 1994, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/pubs/articles/tps/tps_stromlo_draft.htm. Details