Oliphant, Marcus Laurence Elwin (1901 - 2000)

Summary

Sir Marcus Oliphant was Director of the Research School of Physical Sciences, Australian National University 1950-1963, and first President of the Australian Academy of Science 1954-1956. He continued as professor at the Australian National University (ANU) 1964-1967 and was Governor of South Australia 1971-1976.

Details

Chronology

1919 - 1922

Education - Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours in Physics (BSc(Hons)), University of Adelaide

1927

Award - 1851 Exhibition Overseas Scholarship

1927 - c. 1930

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, England

1929

Award - 1851 Exhibition Research Fellowship

1931 -

Award - Messel Research Fellow, Royal Society, England

1934 - 1935

Career position - Lecturer and Fellow, St John's College, University of Cambridge, England

1935 -

Career position - Assistant Director of Research, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, England

1937 - 1950

Career position - Poynting Professor of Physics, University of Birmingham, England

1937 - 2000

Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)

1942

Award - Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa, University of Melbourne

1943

Award - Hughes Medal, Royal Society, England

1946 -

Career position - Australian Representative, Atomic Energy Commission

1946

Award - Silvanius Thomson Medal, British Institute of Radiology, England

1947

Award - Trasenoter, L'Association des Ingenieurs, Liege, Belgium

1948

Award - Faraday Medal, Institution of Electrical Engineers, England

1950 - 1963

Career position - Professor of Physics of Ionised Gases, Australian National University, Australia

1950 - 1963

Career position - Director, Research School of Physical Sciences, Australian National University, Australia

1953 - 2000

Award - Petitioner for the Academy, Founding Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)

1954 - 1957

Career position - President, Australian Academy of Science

1955

Career event - Bakerian Lecture, Royal Society, England

1955

Career event - Rutherford Memorial Lecture, Royal Society, England

1956

Award - Galathea Medal, His Majesty the King of Denmark, Kingdom of Denmark

1958

Award - Australian Institution of Production Engineers Medal

1959

Award - Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) - Director of the School of Science, ANU

1961

Award - Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture, Australian Academy of Science

1964 - 1967

Career position - Honorary Fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University, Australia

1966 - 1969

Career position - Editor, Records of the Australian Academy of Science

1971 - 1976

Career position - Governor of South Australia, South Australian State Government, Australia

1974

Award - James Cook Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales, Australia

1975 - 1987

Award - Foundation Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences (FTS)

1977

Award - Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) - For eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in the field of public service and in service to the crown

1979

Award - ANZAAS Medal, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)

1987

Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE) [Foundation Fellow AATS 1975]

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant - Records, 1953 - 1982, MS 031; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details
• Oral Collection, 1931 - 2003, MS 057; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide

• Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant - Records, 1896 - 1983, 92 04775p SR; Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide. Details

National Library of Australia Oral History Collection

• Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant - Records, 1923 - 1967, DeB 276; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Australasian Science, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journal/journal.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
• Smith, Ailie, Adolph Basser Library Manuscript Collection, eScholarship Research Centre, 2012, http://www.eoas.info/basser_browse.html. Details

Articles

• Sherratt, Tim, 'Political Fallout: Australian Scientists and the Atomic Bomb', Australasian Science, Spring (1996), http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journal/as_fallout.htm. Details
• Sutherland, Denise, '"Just Curiosity...": Sir Mark Oliphant', Australasian Science (1997), http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journal/as_oliphant.htm. Details

Books

• Cockburn, Stewart, Oliphant, the life of Sir Mark Oliphant (Adelaide: Axiom Books, 1981). Details
• Mason, Brett, Wizards of Oz: how Oliphant and Florey helped win the war and shape the modern world (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2022), 424 pp. Details
• Ophel, Trevor and Jenkin, John, Fire in the Belly: the First Fifty Years of the Pioneer School at the ANU (Canberra: Research School of Physical Science and Engineering, Institute of Advanced Studies, ANU, 1996), 157 pp. Details
• Ramsay, Andrew, The basis of everything: Rutherford and Oliphant and the making of the atomic bomb (Sydney: Harper Collins, 2019), 374 pp. Details
• Walker, Frank, Maralinga: The chilling expose of our secret nuclear shame and betrayal of our troops and country (Sydney (Gadigal Country): Hachette Australia, 2016). Details

Book Sections

• Bleaney, Brebis, 'Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant, 1901-2000' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details

Edited Books

• Moyal, Ann ed., Portraits in Science (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1994), 209 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Barton, Ruth, 'Oliphant: the life and times of Sir Mark Oliphant', Australian Physicist, 18 (11) (1981), 228-230. Details
• Binnie, Anna, 'Oliphant, the Father of Atomic Energy', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 139 (2006), 11-22, https://royalsoc.org.au/images/pdf/journal/139_Binnie2.pdf. Details
• Bleaney, Brebis, 'Sir Mark (Marcus Laurence Elwin) Oliphant, AC , KBE', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 47 (2001), 383-393, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2001.0022. Details
• Caro, D. E.; Martin, R. L.; and Oliphant, M., 'Leslie Harold Martin 21 December 1900 - 1 February 1983', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 33 (1987), 399-409, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1987.0015. Details
• Carver, J.H.; Crompton, R.W.; Ellyard, D.G.; Hibbard, L.U.; Inall, E.K., 'Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant 1901-2000', Historical Records of Australian Science, 14 (3) (2003), 337-364. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR02012. Details
• Grant, Colin Kerr, 'Three Pioneers', Radar Returns, 12 (2) (2007), 7-8. http://radarreturns.net.au/assets/issues/rrvol12no2S.pdf. Details
• Holden, Darren, '"On the Oliphant Deign, now to sound the blast": how Mark Oliphant secretly warned of America's post-war intentions of an atomic monopoly', Historical Records of Australian Science, 29 (2) (2018), 130-7. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR18008. Details
• Holden, Darren, 'The indiscretion of Mark Oliphant: how an Australian kick-started the American atomic bomb project', Historical Records of Australian Science, 29 (1) (2018), 28-35. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR17023. Details
• Keeble, Kathryn, 'General Groves's "inevitable war with Russia": Joseph Rotblat's and Mark Oliphant's existential crises', Journal of Australian studies, 46 (2) (2022), 227-40. Details
• Keeble, Kathryn M., 'Frankenstein's machine: redressing Mark Oliphant's scientific reputation', Historical Records of Australian Science, 29 (2) (2018), 122-9, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR18001. Details
• Oliphant, Mark, 'Physical Science in Australian Universities', Vestes, 3 (2) (1960), 11-15. Details
• Oliphant, Mark, 'Seventh Cecil Eddy Memorial Oration, 1964. 'The Cambridge Year'', Radiographer, 11 (2) (1964), 6-9. Details
• Piddington, J. H.; and Oliphant, M. L., 'David Forbes Martyn', Records of the Australian Academy of Science, 2 (2) (1972), 47-60. http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9720220047.htm. Details
• Pockley, Peter, 'The Great White Oliphant', Australasian Science, 21 (9) (2000), 37-38. Details
• Sutherland, Denise, 'Sir Mark Oliphant (1901-2000)', Australian Science, 22 (2) (2001), 46. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q727443. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/53019332. Details
• Papers of Sir Mark Oliphant, 2000, http://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/oliphant/. Details
• 'Oliphant, Mark (19011008-20000714)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-938517. Details
• 'Awarded honorary DSc, 1942', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Oliphant, Marcus Laurence Elwin - Ms 31', in Listing of Adolph Basser Library holdings, Australian Academy of Science, 1994, http://www.science.org.au/basser/manuscript-collection/ms031.html. Details
• 'Oliphant, Marcus Laurence Elwin', 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/P000683p.htm. Details

Theses

• Ellyard, David, 'Mark Oliphant FRS and the Birmingham proton synchrotron', PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, 2011, 520 pp. Details
• Holden, Darren, 'Mark Oliphant and the invisible college of the peaceful atom', PhD thesis, University of Notre Dame Australia, 2019, 305 pp. Details

See also

• Aroney, M. J.; Buckingham, A. D., 'Raymond James Wood Le Fèvre 1905-1986', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (3) (1988), 273-297. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9880730273. Details
• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_o.html. Details
• Crompton, R. W., 'Leonard George Holden Huxley 1902-1988', Historical Records of Australian Science, 8 (4) (1991), 249-264. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9910840249.htm. 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.163. Details
• Davies, Susan, 'R. v.d. R. Wooley in Australia', Historical Records of Australian Science, 6 (1) (1984), 59-69. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9840610059. Details
• Fenner, F., 'Frank Macfarlane Burnet, 1899-1985', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (1) (1987), 39-77. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9870710039. Details
• Foster, S.G.; and Varghese, Margaret M., The Making of the Australian National University 1946-96 (St Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 1996), 475 pp. Details
• Hyde, B. G.; and Day, P, 'John Stuart Anderson', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (2) (1992), 127-49. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9920920127. Details
• McCarthy, Gavan, 'Generating History: the heritage value of the archives of the Australian National University Homopolar Generator', Transactions of The Institution of Engineers, Australia: Multi-Disciplinary Engineering, GE11 (2 (November)) (1987), 101-106. Details
• Newton, J. O., 'Ernest William Titterton 1916-1990', Historical Records of Australian Science, 9 (2) (1992), 167-187. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9920920167. Details
• Paterson, M. S., 'John Conrad Jaeger 1907-1979', Historical Records of Australian Science, 5 (3) (1982), 64-88. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9820530064. Details
• Sherratt, Tim, '"On the beach": Australia's nuclear history' (1996).. http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/pubs/articles/tps/tps_on_the_beach.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