Person

Laby, Thomas Howell (1880 - 1946)

FRS

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    Laby, Thomas Howell Portrait
    Details

Born
3 May 1880
Creswick, Victoria, Australia
Died
21 June 1946
Occupation
Chemist and Physicist

Summary

Thomas Laby, Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of Melbourne 1914-1942, was formerly Professor of Physics at Victoria University College, Wellington, New Zealand 1909-1914. He shared in the design of one the first anti-gas respirators. Laby was also Chairman of the first Optical Munitions Panel during the 1940s. Laby was a strong advocate of the use of radio in public education and frequently made radio broadcasts. With G. W. C. Kaye he wrote Tables of physical and chemical constants (1911, 9th edition 1941). A physics lecture theatre at the University of Melbourne was named after him.

Details

Chronology

1901 - 1905
Career position - Demonstrator of Chemistry, University of Sydney
1905 - 1908
Award - 1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholarship
1907
Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Sydney
1909 - 1915
Career position - Professor of Physics, Victoria University College, New Zealand
1911
Career position - President, Section A (Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science
1915
Award - Master of Arts (MA), honoris causa, University of Melbourne
1915 - 1944
Career position - Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of Melbourne
1921 -
Career position - Foundation Councillor (Physics), Australian National Research Council
1921
Education - Doctor of Science (ScD), Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge
1923 - 1946
Award - Fellow, Institute of Physics, United Kingdom
1924
Career position - President, Royal Society of Victoria
1927 - ?
Career position - Member, Australian Radio Research Board, CSIR
1928
Career position - President, Section A (Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science
1929 - 1931
Career position - Consulting physicist, Imperial Geophysical Experimental Survey
1929 - 1937
Career position - Commonwealth Adviser on Radium, Commonwealth Radium Laboratory
1931 - 1946
Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)
1939 - 1941
Career position - Inaugural President, Australian branch, Institute of Physics
1940 - 1944
Career position - Chairman, Optical Munitions Panel 1940-44
1943
Career position - Member, Army Inventions Directorate

Colleague

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

The University of Melbourne Archives

  • Thomas Howell Laby - Records, 1908 - 1937; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

Articles

Books

  • Muirhead, Ed, Thomas Howell Laby (1880 - 1946): his contribution to Australian science ([s.l.]: [s.n.], c.1990), 63 pp. Details
  • Muirhead, Edmund, A Man Ahead of his Times: T.H. Laby's Contribution to Australian Science (Melbourne: School of Physics, University of Melbourne, 1996), 134 pp. Details
  • Rogers, J. S.; edited by T. H. Laby, Physics for medical students : a supplementary text book (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1932), 151 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Close, Cecily, 'Laby, Thomas Howell (1880-1946), physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 640-641. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090643b.htm. Details
  • Home, R. W., 'Thomas Howell Laby, 1880-1946' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details

Journal Articles

  • Ambrose, Douglas, 'A History of Kaye & Laby', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 60 (2006), 49-57. Details
  • Bowen, Jennifer, 'Riding the waves: Professor T. H. Laby as imperial scientist and radio visionary', Historical Records of Australian Science, 28 (2) (2017), 91-8, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR17003. Details
  • Dean, Katrina, 'Inscribing Settler Science: Ernest Rutherford, Thomas Laby and the Making of Careers in Physics', History of Science, 41 (2003), 217-240. Details
  • Flesch, Juliet and McPhee, Peter, '150 Years, 150 Stories: Laby Family', Uni News, 11 (24) (2002), 4. Details
  • Grant, Kerr, 'Thomas Ranken Lyle, 1860 - 1944', Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 5 (14) (1945), 32-49. Details
  • Martin, L. H., 'Obituary: Professor T. H. Laby, FRS', Australian Journal of Science, 9 (2) (1946), 64-65. Details
  • Massey, Harrie Stewart Wilson, 'T. H. Laby, FRS: the 1980 Laby memorial lecture', Australian Physicist, 17 (11) (1980), 181-187. Details
  • Mawson, Douglas; and Laby, Thomas, 'Preliminary observations on radio-activity and the occurrence of radium in Australian minerals', Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 38 (1904), 382-9. Details
  • Montano, Walter A., 'Noise abatement actions in Australasia - 1920s and 30s', Acoustics Australia, 48 (2) (2020), 164-9. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40857-020-00199-x. Details
  • Montano, Walter A., 'First measurements of street noise - 1928 in Melbourne, Australia', Acoustics Australia, 50 (2) (2022), 163-7. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40857-022-00272-7. Details
  • Picken, D. K., 'Thomas Howell Laby, 1880 - 1946', Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 5 (16) (1948), 733-55. Details
  • Picken, D. K., 'Thomas Howell Laby,1880 - 1946', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 5 (16) (1948), 733-55. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1948.0009. Details

Resources

Resource Sections

See also

Digital resources

Title
Laby, Thomas Howell Portrait
Type
Image

Details

McCarthy, G.J.

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