Biographical entry Laby, Thomas Howell (1880 - 1946)

Summary

Thomas Howell Laby, Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of Melbourne 1914-42, was formerly Professor of Physics at Victoria University College, Wellington, New Zealand 1909-14. 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.

Details

Born 3 May 1880. Died 21 June 1946. Educated University of Sydney and Emmanuel College, Cambridge (BA 1907, ScD 1921). Demonstrator of chemistry, University of Sydney 1901-05, 1851 Exhibition Scholar 1905-08, Professor of Physics, Victoria University College, New Zealand 1909-15, Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of Melbourne 1915-44. Commonwealth Adviser on Radium 1929-37, Consulting physicist, Imperial Geophysical Experimental Survey 1929-31, Chairman, Optical Munitions Panel 1940-44, Member, Army Inventions Directorate 1943, President, Section A, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science 1911, 1928, first President, Australian branch, Institute of Physics 1939-41. President of the Royal Society of Victoria 1924. A physics lecture theatre at the University of Melbourne was named after him.

Related entries

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 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

Books

• Muirhead, Edmund, A Man Ahead of his Times: T.H. Laby's Contribution to Australian Science, School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1996, 134 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Close, Cecily, 'Laby, Thomas Howell (1880-1946), Physicist', in Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle (eds), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 9, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1983, pp. 640-641. Also available at 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 University Press, Oxford, 2004. Details

Journal Articles

• Dean, Katrina, 'Inscribing Settler Science: Ernest Rutherford, Thomas Laby and the Making of Careers in Physics', History of Science, vol. 41, 2003, pp. 217-240. Details
• Flesch, Juliet and McPhee, Peter, '150 Years, 150 Stories: Laby Family', Uni News, vol. 11, no. 24, 2002, p. 4. Details
• Martin, L. H., 'Obituary: Professor T. H. Laby, FRS', Australian Journal of Science, vol. 9, no. 2, 1946, pp. 64-65. Details
• Massey, Harrie Stewart Wilson, 'T. H. Laby, FRS: the 1980 Laby memorial lecture', Australian Physicist, vol. 17, no. 11, 1980, pp. 181-187. Details

Online Resources

• '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
• 'Laby, T H', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1306306. Details
• Sutherland, Denise, 'The Giant's Eye: Optical Munitions in Australia', Australasian Science, vol. Spring, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journals/as_omp.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/scripts/fam-dynindex.php3?EID=P000553. Details
• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/scripts/smv-dynindex.php3?EID=P000553. 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, vol. 7, no. 1, 1987, pp. 97-107. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9870710097.htm. 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, Department of History, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2003, 168 pp. 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, vol. 5, no. 1, 1980, pp. 68-102. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9800510068.htm. Details
• Wisdom, John, A History of Defence Science in Australia, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Melbourne, 1995, 267 pp. Details