Ed Auld's Draft History of UBC PHAS

UBC Department of Physics and Astronomy --> History of the Department --> here

The following was copied from Ed Auld's draft on 25 Jan 2008 into this wiki where everyone could work on it together, but no one ever did. It was later recreated under Drupal at Brewer's Basecamp where it remained mostly neglected by everyone except for one or two people who cared enough to check for errors or omissions. That site was superseded by a mediawiki site on musr.phas.ubc.ca, which no longer exists, and then copied into a better one at History of UBC PHAS, so please go there from now on if you are willing to contribute.

The following exhortations are equally valid for the new, improved site:

Please don't "add comments". This is not a blog. If you see errors, just correct them; if you see omissions, just add what's needed. Don't try to ask anyone's permission. Just do it! (Of course, it might be nice if you identify yourself by terminating your changes with four tildes in a row, so we'll know who changed what.) Thank you. - Jess 15:41, 18 November 2011 (PST)

History Time-line for Physics and Astronomy (DRAFT)

To be used by the Faculty of Science in preparing a document for the 100th anniversary celebration in 2008.

E.G. Auld, Jan 25, 2008

1907: Rutherford determines the true nature of the atom.

1915: Four Physics courses offered at UBC:

Introduction to the Principles of Physics; Text: Ontario High School Physics and Laboratory Manual. Heat, Sound and Light; Text: Dechanel's "Heat, Sound and Light". Electricity and Magnetism; Text: Brooks and Poyser, "Electricity and Magnetism". Mechanics; Text: Loney's "Mechanics and Hydrostatics for Beginners" Staff and Faculty. H.T. Barnes, J.G. Davidson, B.L.Silver.

1916: T.C. Hebb [B.Sc., M.A. (Dal.), Ph.D. (Chicago)] hired as Assistant Professor.

1919: Fifth course introduced: Advanced Electricity and Magnetism; differential and integral calculus a prerequisite.

1920: T.C. Hebb formally made Head of Department. He held this position until 1939. A.E. Hennings [Ph.D. (Chicago)] hired as Associate Prof. Number of courses expanded from 5 to 10, including: "Recent Advances in Physics" with Rutherford's and Millikan's Texts and an Experimental Physics lab ( 6 hours per week).

1926: G.M. Shrum [Ph.D. (Toronto)] hired as Assistant Prof.

1929: Undergraduate course increased to 19. Graduate courses introduced (8 in all). A course for High School Teachers was also introduced.

1931: Quantum Mechanics introduced as a graduate course.

1934: Patrick McTaggert-Cowan was a teaching assistant for the year. May Convocation: G.M. Volkoff received his B.A. in Physics and Math and was awarded the Governor-General's gold medal.

1935: First M.A. awarded where Physics was the major. Gordon Danielson and Thomas How. Robert Christy received his B.A. in Math and Physics and was awarded the Governor-General's Gold medal.

1936: G.M. Volkoff received his M.A. degree. Thesis: "Determination of mean lives of excited atoms". He then studied with J. Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California at Berkeley where he published his paper "On Massive Neutron Cores" and earned his Ph.D. in 1940.

1937: Robert Christy received his M.A. "Electron Attachment and Negative Ion Formation in Oxygen". He went to Berkeley to work with Oppenheimer for his Ph.D., made significant contributions to the Manhattan project and Christy joined the University of Chicago Physics department briefly after leaving Los Alamos before being recruited to join the Cal Tech faculty in 1946. He stayed at Cal Tech for his academic career, serving as Department Chair, Provost and Acting President.

Shuichi Kusaka's B.A. awarded the Governor-General's gold medal. Physics and Math. Shuichi was the son of a Japanese family. He moved to Canada when he was five. Attended Gladstone High School. His parents were medical officers for the B.C. packers in Steveston. He got his Ph.D. under Oppenheimer. He became a U.S. citizen, and was at Princeton, when he was drowned in 1947 swimming off the East coast. He worked with Pauli and Einstein.

1938: A.M. Crooker hired as Assistant Prof.

1939: Shrum becomes head of the Department. Hebb retires. Ken Mann is hired as Assistant Professor. Ken Mann became one of the best teachers the Department has ever had. Shortly after WWII, the following graffiti was found in the men's washroom: "Ken Mann is a damn good prof". What better accolade could you want as a teacher?

1940: G.M. Volkoff hired as Assistant Prof. A graduate level course in Nuclear Physics is added.

1943: Thomas Collins receives his B.A. in Math and Physics. He was the first graduate to get a Ph.D. in Physics (1950). He studied under Volkoff.

1944: Anne Underhill gets her M.A. "The Stark Effect of Helium in Some B-type Stars".

1946: Course number system changed to present system: 100,200,300,400 level for undergrads and 500 level for graduate courses. PHYS 511: Low Temperature Physics introduced. Engineering Physics starts in the Faculty of Applied Science, but is run by Physics. Three returning war veterans initiated this: Willard Matheson, Duncan Pitman and David Rose. They graduated in 1947 and all three went on to great careers.

1947: ten faculty and 11 instructor lecturers. The new Hennings Building shows on the campus map.

1948: J.B. Warren hired as Associate Prof. John Warren is considered to be the father of nuclear physics for western Canada. The Van de Graaff built under his supervision was run successfully from 1949 until the early 1970s (when TRIUMF started up). The first of the Department photographs is taken on the steps of Hennings.

1949: Fritz Bowers hired as a Lecturer.

1957: Myer Bloom arrives as a Post Doctorate Fellow. Myer becomes "Mr. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance" in Canada. Medical MRI technology came from his pioneering experiments.

1954-1959: Many new faculty arrived. Jim Brown, Jim and Betty Daniels, Karl Erdman, Ron Burgess, Bob Stewart, George Griffiths, Bruce White, John Prescott, Derek Livesey, Robert Barrie, John Jacobs, Peter Rastall.

1961: G.M. Volkoff becomes Head of the Department. Shrum retires from UBC and moves on to be Head of B.C. Hydro and Chancellor of Simon Fraser University.

1962: Hebb building and Theatre is opened.

1965: Walter Hardy gets his Ph.D., under the supervision of Myer Bloom

1968: TRIUMF receives its funding and construction begins on the South Campus. J.B. Warren becomes the first Director, Erich Vogt Associate Director.

1972: Walter Hardy becomes one of the most honoured scientists in Canada, for his research with hydrogen, low temperature physics and high-temperature cuprate superconductors. The most recent award given to him, Doug Bonn and Ruixing Liang was the NSERC Brockhouse Prize.

1973: Rudi Haering becomes Head of the Department. G.M. Volkoff becomes Dean of Science.

1974: First full energy beam at TRIUMF. Vortek lamp invented: Ahlborn, Nodwell, Camm and Albach the principals. The company is formed and becomes a successful high tech spin-off from Physics.

1975: Rudi Haering, and Jeff Dahn research on intercalation batteries leads to the eventual formation of Moli Energy.

1976: Rudi Haering and Erich Vogt (this year appointed Vice-President, Faculty and Student Affairs) become Officers of the Order of Canada. Jack Sample (UBC Ph.D. 195?) appointed TRIUMF Director, Karl Erdman Associate Director. Bill Unruh joins the department. He is a world renowned expert on gravity.

1977: Roy Nodwell becomes Head of the Department. Jess Brewer joins as an Assistant Prof. after a few years as a Muonium Chemist.

1981: Erich Vogt becomes Director of TRIUMF. He retires from that post in 1994.

1982: David Williams becomes Head of Department.

1984: Last time that Shrum was able to come to the Departmental photo.

1986: Chemistry-Chemistry-Chemistry-Physics wing completed. High temperature superconductivity is discovered.

1987: Brian Turrell becomes Head of the Department. Tom Tiedje joins the Department and brings molecular beam epitaxy and the STM to UBC.

1988: Engineering Physics receives a Fund For Excellence grant from the Provincial government to form the Engineering Physics Project Lab.

1990: Herb Gush with Halpern and Wishnow successfully measure the Cosmic microwave background radiation with a ten-minute rocket launch from Churchill Manitoba. A very sophisticated but inexpensive liquid helium cooled spectrometer did the trick. Essentially all of the apparatus was built in the Department's workshop.

1992(?): Lorne Whitehead joins the Department as the 3M NSERC Industrial Prof. He becomes the most prolific inventor of patents the university has ever had.

1994: Bertran Brockhouse is awarded the Nobel prize for Physics. Neutron spectroscopy at Chalk River. He got his B.A. at UBC in 1947. Closely collaborated with Myer Bloom for many years. Tom Tiedje becomes the first Director of AMPEL. AMPEL building opens.

1995: Astronomers join the Department after the re-organization of Science. Department renamed Physics and Astronomy.

1997: 50th anniversary of the first Engineering Physics graduates celebrated. Over 200 alumni came to the reunion. Bjarni Trygvasson (EngPhys '75), a Canadian Astronaut, was in orbit on the space station in August. He was testing his motion isolation system, part of which had been developed in the Engineering Physics project lab.

1998: Tom Tiedje becomes Head of the Department. Ed Auld retires as Director of Engineering Physics after 18 years. Jeff Young takes over as Director.

2001: A Volkswagon car is suspended under the Golden Gate bridge.

2003: Brian Turrell becomes Head again for one year.

2004: Jeff Young becomes Head of the Department.

2006: Carl Wieman (Nobel laureate) joins the Department. Erich Vogt receives Order of British Columbia.

2007: Jaymie Matthews becomes an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Members of this Department have probably received more major prizes and honours than any other Department in Canada.

Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada: 12,

Fellows of the Royal Society of London: 1; Unruh

Fellows of the APS: 9

Canada Council Killam Fellowships: 2; Hardy and Richer

Izaak Walton Killam Fellowships: 2; Gush and Bloom

EWR Steacie prizes and fellowships: 7

Sloan Research Fellowships: 11

CIAR members: 11

CAP Gold Medal or Herzberg Medal: 14; Haering, Hardy and Unruh are double winners.

CAP discipline medals: Industrial and Applied Physics: Whitehead

Theoretical and Mathematical Physics: Unruh, Semenoff, Affleck, Choptiuk

Brockhouse Medal: Hardy

Teaching: Matthews, Marziali

Royal Society of Canada medals: 5

B.C. Science Council awards: 13