Person
Laby, Thomas Howell (1880 - 1946)
FRS
- 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
Related entries
Colleague
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
- Exhibition Papers, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/exhib_papers.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
Articles
- Sutherland, Denise, 'The Giant's Eye: Optical Munitions in Australia', Australasian Science, Spring (1997), http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journals/as_omp.htm. Details
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
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/76396317. Details
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7668286. Details
- 'Laby, T H (1880-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1306306. Details
- 'Awarded honorary MA, 1915', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details
Resource Sections
- 'Laby, Thomas Howell', 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/P000553p.htm. Details
- 'Laby, Thomas Howell', 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/laby.htm. Details
See also
- Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_l.html. Details
- Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_l.html. Details
- Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_l.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
- Caro, D. E.; Martin, R. L., 'Leslie Harold Martin 1900-1983', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (1) (1987), 97-107. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9870710097. Details
- Flesch, Juliet and McPhee, Peter, 150 years, 150 stories: brief biographies of one hundred and fifty remarkable people associated with the University of Melbourne (Melbourne: Department of History, University of Melbourne, 2003), 168 pp. Details
- Gold, Ergad; Greener, Rosalie (Ed) ed., Inventive Vics Exhibition (Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Scientific Industry Association, 1985), 58 pp. Optical Munitions. 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
- White, F. W.G., 'Robert Gordon Menzies (1894-1978)', Historical Records of Australian Science, 5 (1) (1980), 68-102. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9800510068. Details
- Wisdom, John, A History of Defence Science in Australia (Melbourne: Defence Science and Technology Organisation, 1995), 267 pp. Details
Digital resources
McCarthy, G.J.
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 8 October 2019
- Foundation Supporter - Royal Society of Victoria