Home, Roderick Weir (1939 - )

Summary

Rod Home, an historian of science, has played a major role in the documentation of the history of Australian science. In 1975 he was appointed Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne. As Professor he conceived a number of projects that have provided the foundation for studies in the field. These include the annual "Bibliography of the history of Australian science", the first of which was published in 1981 and all of which have been compiled by bibliographers experienced in the area. The Australian Science Archives Project resulted in the publication of Guide to the archives of science in Australia: records of individuals (1991). Further projects were the online resources Bright sparcs and the Encyclopedia of Australian science and innovation. Home was the longest-serving Editor (1984 - 2014) of Historical records of Australian science, Australia's only journal devoted the the history of Australian science and technology. He also initiated the Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller Project, which aims to find, edit and publish the prolific correspondence of one of Australia's greatest nineteenth-century scientists. Home has published widely on the history science in general and particularly the history of physics.

Details

Chronology

1959

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

1960 - 1964

Career position - Physics teacher, Hailebury College, Melbourne

1967

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A

1967 - 1970

Career position - Lecturer, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne

1970 - 1975

Career position - Senior Lecturer, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne

1975 - 2002

Career position - Professor, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne

1977 - 1980

Career position - President, Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science

1984 - 2014

Career position - Editor, Historical records of Australian science

1985

Education - DLitt, University of Melbourne

1985 - 1996

Career position - Foundation Director, Australian Science Archives Project

1995 -

Award - Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA)

1996 -

Career position - Chairman, National Advisory Board, Australian Science Archives Project

2001

Award - Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and the humanities in history, philosophy and science

2004

Award - Academy Medal (jointly). Australian Academy of Science

2010

Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM), for service to education as a scholar and archivist of the history and philosophy of Australian science

2022 -

Career position - Chair, Editorial Advisory Committee, Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Home, R. W., Science as a German Export to Nineteenth-Century Australia (London: Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, 1995), 21 pp. Details
• Home, R. W., A distant authority: Ferdinand (von) Mueller, the communication of ideas, and the colonial search for international standing in science (Melbourne: Ancora Press: Monash University, 2016), 20 pp. Details
• Home, R. W.; and Needham, Paula J., Physics in Australia to 1945: Bibliography and Biographical Register (Melbourne: Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne/National Centre for Research, 1990), 241 pp. Details
• Oppy, Graham and Trakakis, N. N. eds, A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand (Clayton, Vic.: Monash University Publishing, 2010), 771 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Home, R. W., 'Lyle, Sir Thomas Ranken (1860-1944), mathematical physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 10: 1891 - 1939 Lat-Ner, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986), pp. 172-174. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100170b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Love, Ernest Frederick John (1861-1929), physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 10: 1891 - 1939 Lat-Ner, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986), pp. 149-150. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100143b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Martin, Florence (1867-1957), physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 10: 1891 - 1939 Lat-Ner, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986), p. 427. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100417b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Science, Pure and Applied' in Australians, a Guide to Sources, D. H. Borchardt and Victor Crittenden, eds (Broadway: Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, 1987), pp. 437-445. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Science on Service' in Australian Science in the Making, R. W. Home, ed. (Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 220-251. Details
• Home, R. W., 'The Physical Sciences: String, Sealing Wax and Self-Sufficiency' in The Commonwealth of Science: ANZAAS and the Scientific Enterprise in Australasia, 1888-1988, Roy MacLeod, ed. (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 147-165. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Threlfall, Sir Richard (1861-1932), physicist and chemical engineer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 220-221. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120243b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Sutherland, William (1859-1911), theoretical physicist and physical chemist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 141-152. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120159b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'A World-Wide Scientific Network and Patronage System: Australian and Other 'Colonial' Fellows of the Royal Society of London' in International Science and National Scientific Identity: Australia between Britain and America, R. W. Home and Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, eds (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991), pp. 151-179. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Georg von Neumayer and the Flagstaff Observatory, Melbourne' in From Berlin to the Burdekin: The German Contribution to the Development of Australian Science, Exploration and the Arts, David Walker and Jurgen Tampke, eds (Sydney: New South Wales University Press, 1991), pp. 40-53. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Building a Laboratory in the Late 19th Century: New Requirements for a New Style of Physics' in I Beni Culturali Scientifici nella Storia e Didattica della Fisica (Pavia: La Goliardica Pavese, 1993), pp. 29-37. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Builder, Geoffrey (1906-1976), physicist and radio engineer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 13: 1940 - 1980 A-De, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1993), pp. 290-291. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130329b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Bailey, Victor Albert (1895-1964), physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 13: 1940 - 1980 A-De, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1993), pp. 90-91. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130108b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Learning from Buildings: Laboratory Design and the Nature of Physics' in Non-Verbal Communication in Science prior to 1900, G. Mazolini, ed. (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1993), pp. 587-608. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Burhop, Eric Henry Stoneley (1911-1980), physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 13: 1940 - 1980 A-De, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1993), pp. 301-302. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130339b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'To Watheroo and back: the DTM in Australia, 1911 - 1947' in The Earth, the heavens and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Good, Gregory A., ed. (Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union, 1994), pp. 149-60. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Eddy, Cecil Ernest (1900-1956) Radiological Physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 14: 1940 - 1980 Di-Kel, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1996), pp. 74-75. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140084b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Hercus, Eric Oswarld (1891-1962), Physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 14: 1940 - 1980 Di-Kel, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1996), pp. 439-440. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140506b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Martyn, David Forbes (1906-1970), Physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 15: 1940 - 1980 Kem-Pie, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000), pp. 320-322. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A150379b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Parnell, Thomas (1881-1948), Physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 15: 1940 - 1980 Kem-Pie, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000), pp. 570-571. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A150663b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Emigrants or Scientific Travellers? Ferdinand Mueller and Georg Neumayer between Germany and Australia' in Baron von Mueller's German Melbourne, Ellen I. Mitchell, ed. (Bundoora, Victoria: La Trobe University, 2000), pp. 11-23. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Science Publishing' in A History of the Book in Australia, Lyons, Martyn and Arnold, John, eds (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2002), pp. 292-294. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Rogers, James Stanley (1893-1977), Physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 16: 1940 - 1980 Pik-Z, John Ritchie and Diane Langmore, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), pp. 119-120. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160142b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Roberts, John Keith (1897-1944), Physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 16: 1940 - 1980 Pik-Z, John Ritchie and Diane Langmore, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), p. 103. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160123b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Thomas Howell Laby, 1880-1946' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details
• Home, R. W., 'Sir Richard Threlfall, 1861-1932' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details
• Home, R. W., 'Butement, William Alan Stewart (1904-1990), Defence Scientist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 17: 1981 - 1990 A-K, Diane Langmore, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007), pp. 172-174. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/butement-william-alan-12274. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Mueller, Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich von ' in New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Koertge, Noretta, ed., vol. 5 (Detroit : Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008), pp. 204-209 . Details
• Home, R. W., 'Lehany, Frederick John (Fred) (1915-1994), physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 19: 1991 - 1995 A-Z, Melanie Nolan, ed. (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2021), pp. 512-513, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lehany-frederick-john-fred-27509. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Harper, Arthur Frederick Alan (1913-1991), physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 19: 1991 - 1995 A-Z, Melanie Nolan, ed. (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2021), pp. 358-360, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/harper-arthur-frederick-alan-23777. Details
• Jenkin, John and Home, R.W., 'Jauncey, George Eric Macdonnell (1888-1947), Physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography: supplement 1580 - 1980, with a name index to the Australian dictionary of biography to 1980, Christopher Cunneen, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2005), pp. 201-202. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/AS10248b.htm. Details
• Jenkin, John and Home, R.W., 'Kleeman, Richard Daniel (1875-1932), Physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography: supplement 1580 - 1980, with a name index to the Australian dictionary of biography to 1980, Christopher Cunneen, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2005), pp. 218-219. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/AS10270b.htm. Details
• Jenkins, John; Home, R.W., 'Farr, Clinton Coleridge (1866-1943)' in Australian dictionary of biography: supplement 1580 - 1980, with a name index to the Australian dictionary of biography to 1980, Christopher Cunneen, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2005), pp. 123-124. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/AS10155b.htm. Details

Conference Papers

• Home, R. W., 'The Beginnings of an Australian Physics Community', in Scientific Colonialism: A Cross-Cultural Comparison. Papers From a Conference at Melbourne, Australia, 25-30 May 1981 edited by Nathan Reingold and Marc Rothenberg (Melbourne: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981), pp. 3-34.. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Changing Patterns in Australian Physics Research: the First Particle Accelerators', in 2002 Conference on the History of Science/ Sino-Australian Symposium edited by Wan-Sheng Horng et al. (Taipei: 2002), pp. 11-18.. Details

Conference Proceedings

• Patients, Practitioners and Techniques: Second National Conference on Medicine and Health in Australia, Melbourne, 1984 edited by Attwood, Harold; Home, R. W. (Melbourne: Medical History Society, A.M.A. [Victoria Branch] and Medical History Unit, University of Melbourne, 1985). Details

Edited Books

• Home, R. W. ed., Australian Science in the Making (Cambridge/Melbourne: Cambridge University Press/Australian Academy of Science, 1988), 440 pp. Details
• Home, R. W.; and Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory eds, International Science and National Scientific Identity: Australia Between Britain and America (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991). Details
• Home, R. W.; Lucas, A. M.; Maroske, Sara, Sinkora, D. M.; and Voigt, J. H. eds, Regardfully Yours: Selected Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, Volume 2, 1860-1875, vol. 2 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2002), 865 pp. Details
• Home, R. W.; Lucas, A.M.; Maroske, Sara, Sinkora, D.M.; and Voigt, J.H. eds, Regardfully Yours: Selected Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, Volume 1, 1840-1859, vol. 1 (Berne: Peter Lang Verlag, 1998), 850 pp. Details
• Home, R. W.; Lucas, A.M.; Maroske, Sara, Sinkora, D.M.; Voigt, J.H.; and Wells, M. eds, Regardfully Yours: Selected Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, Volume 3, 1876-1896, vol. 3 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2006), 909 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Home, R. W., 'W.H. Bragg and J.P.V. Madsen: Collaboration and Correspondence, 1905-1911', Historical Records of Australian Science, 5 (2) (1981), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9810520001. Details
• Home, R. W., 'The Problem of Intellectual Isolation in Scientific Life: W.H. Bragg and the Australian Scientific Community, 1886-1909', Historical Records of Australian Science, 6 (1) (1984), 19-30. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9840610019. Details
• Home, R. W., 'First Physicist of Australia: Richard Threfall at the University of Sydney, 1886-1898', Historical Records of Australian Science, 6 (3) (1986), 333-358. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9860630333. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Physics in Australia and Japan to 1914: a Comparison', Annals of Science, 44 (1987), 215-235. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Australian Science and its Public', Australian Cultural Studies (1988), 86-103. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Commission on Bibiliography of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science: Report on Australia (1989)', Nuncius Annali di Storia della Scienza, 12 (1991), 141-142. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Humboldtian Science Revisited: an Australian Case Study', History of Science, 33 (1994), 1-22. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Defining the Boundaries of the Field: Physics in Australia', Special edition of Scientia Canadensis, 17 (1&2) (1994), 53-70. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Ferdinand Mueller: Migration and the Sense of Self', Historical Records of Australian Science, 11 (3) (1997), 311-324. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9971130311. Details
• Home, R. W., 'The Scientific Savant in Nineteenth Century Australia', Historical Records of Australian Science, 11 (3) (1997), 283-454, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9971130281. Details
• Home, R. W., 'A Botanist for a Continent: Ferdinand von Mueller (1825-96)', Endeavour, 22 (2) (1998), 72-75. Details
• Home, R. W., 'The Royal Society and the Empire: the Colonial and Commonwealth Fellowship, Part 1: 1731-1847', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 56 (2002), 307-332. Details
• Home, R. W., 'The Royal Society and the Empire: the Colonial and Commonwealth Fellowship, Part 2: After 1847', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 57 (2003), 47-84. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Physics in Melbourne', Physics in Perspective, 7 (2005), 473-490. Details
• Home, R. W., 'William Sutherland and the "Sutherland-Einstein" Diffusion Relation: Theoretical Physics in a Colonial Setting', Historia Scientiarum, 15 (2005), 125-138. Details
• Home, R. W., 'The Physical Tourist - Physics in Melbourne', Physics in Perspective, 7 (2005), 473-490. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Speculating About Atoms in Early 20th Century Melbourne: William Sutherland and the "Sutherland-Einstein" Diffusion Relation', Australian Physics, 42 (2) (2005), 53-60, https://aip.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Australian%20Physics/Aust%20Phys%2042-2.pdf. Details
• Home, R. W., 'The rush to accelerate: Early stages of nuclear physics research in Australia', Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 36 (2) (2006), 213-241, https://doi.org/10.1525/hsps.2006.36.2.213. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Neumayer, Humboldt and the Search for a Global Physics', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 123 (2011), 2-10. Details
• Home, R. W., 'La Trobe's 'honest looking German': Ferdinand Mueller and the botanical exploration of gold-rush Victoria', La Trobeana: the newsletter of the La Trobe Society of Australia, 11 (3) (2012), 9-16. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Ferdinand Mueller's Alpine Itinerary', Historical Records of Australian Science, 25 (1) (2014), 1-17, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR14003. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Ferdinand Mueller and the Royal Society of Victoria', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 127 (1) (2015), 105-9, https://doi.org/10.1071/RS15012. Details
• Home, R. W., 'A tale of two honours: unpacking some of Ferdinand von Mueller's awards', Heraldry in Australia, 76 (2017), 3-17. Details
• Home, R. W.; and Kretzer, Hans-Jochen, 'The Flagstaff Observatory, Melbourne: New Documents Relation to its Foundation', Historical Records of Australian Science, 8 (4) (1991), 213-244. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9910840213. Details
• Home, R. W.; and Livingston, K. T., 'Science and Technology in the Story of Australian Federation: the Case of Meteorology, 1876-1908', Historical Records of Australian Science, 10 (2) (1994), 109-127. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9941020109. Details
• Home, R. W.; and Maroske, Sara, 'Ferdinand von Mueller and the French Consuls', Explorations: a Bulletin Devoted to the Study of Franco-Australian Links, 18 (June 1995; issued December 1997) (1995), 3-50. Details
• Home, R. W.; and Watanabe, Masao, 'Forming New Physics Communities: Australia and Japan, 1914-1950', Annals of Science, 47 (1990), 317-345. Details
• Home, R. W.; Maroske, Sara; Lucas, A. M.; and Lucas, P. J., 'Why Explore Antarctica?: Australian Discussions in the 1880s', Australian Journal of Politics and History, 38 (1992), 386-413. Details
• Home, Roderick Weir, 'History of Science in Australia', ISIS, 73 (268) (1982), 337-342. Details
• Home, Roderick Weir, 'Origins of the Australian Physics Community', Historical Studies, 20 (April) (1983), 383-400. Details
• Home, Roderick Weir, 'Between Classroom and Industrial Laboratory: the Emergence of Physics as a Profession in Australia', Australian Physicist, 20 (August) (1983), 163-167. Details
• Jenkin, J. G.; and Home, R. W., 'Horace Lamb and Early Physics Teaching in Australia', Historical Records of Australian Science, 10 (4) (1995), 349-380. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9951040349. Details
• Lucas, A. M.; and Home, R. W., 'Misleading labels: Richard Helms and the Elder Exploring Expedition', Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 174 (2018), 14-8. Details
• Maroske, Sara, Robin, Libby and McCarthy, Gavan, 'Building the history of Australian science: five projects of Professor R. W. Home (1980 - present)', Historical Records of Australian Science, 28 (1) (2017), 1-11, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR16018. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7356694. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/108411882. Details
• Home, R. W.; Lucas, A.M.; Maroske, Sara, Sinkora, D.M.; Voigt, J.H.; and Wells, M. [eds], The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 2023, https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/. Details
• 'Home, R W', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-844670. Details

Reviews

• Morison, Patricia, J T Wilson and the fraternity of Duckmaloi, Rodopi, Amsterdam - Atlanta, GA, 1997, 474 pp.
  Home, R. W., Health and History, 3 (2), (2001), 143-147. Details
• Clarke, W. B., (edited by Ann Moyal), The Web of Science: the Scientific Correspondence of the Rev. W. B. Clarke, Australia's Pioneer Geologist (2003)
  Home, R. W., Historical Records of Australian Science, 16 (1), (2005), 107-111. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR05006. Details

See also

• MacLeod, Roy ed., The Commonwealth of Science: ANZAAS and the Scientific Enterprise in Australasia, 1888-1988 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1988), 433 pp. Details
• Robson, Alexandra K.; Production Manager and Editor eds, Who's who in Australia 2019 (Southbank, Vic.: AAP Directories, 2018), 1788 pp. Details