Harrie Massey

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Harrie Massey
G.D. Allam

Sir Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey

mathematical physicist who worked primarily in the fields of atomic and atmospheric physics
.

A graduate of the

Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, where they worked on the electromagnetic isotope separation
process. When Oliphant returned to Britain in 1945, Massey took over the Berkeley Mission.

Massey returned to University College London, in October 1945 to find it badly damaged by bombing, and the Mathematics Department in dingy temporary accommodation. In 1950 he was appointed

European Space Research Organization and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory
at University College London.

Early life

Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey was born in Invermay, Victoria, Australia,

Hoddles Creek, and enrolled in the local state school in 1913. He received his Merit Certificate, normally awarded after completing the eighth grade, when he was nine, but due to his age he still had to stay there for another three years. He won a scholarship to University High School, and moved to Parkville with his mother in 1920. At University High School he was president of the Science Club and vice captain of the cricket team.[1]

Career

At the age of 16, Massey won a scholarship to the

Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science in Perth in August 1925, he met a schoolteacher, Jessica Elizabeth Bruce. They were married on 11 January 1928 at the district registrar's office in Perth.[2] They had a daughter, Pamela Lois.[1]

At that time, the university did not offer a

Ralph Fowler from the University of Cambridge,[1] who was Paul Dirac's PhD supervisor.[3]

Queen's University, Belfast

In 1929, with the benefit of an Aitchison travelling scholarship from the University of Melbourne, Massey went to

1851 Exhibition Scholarship in 1931.[2][4] At this time the Cavendish Laboratory was one of the leading centres of physics in the world. In 1932 Cavendish laboratory scientists John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton split the atomic nucleus, James Chadwick discovered the neutron, and Patrick Blackett and Giuseppe Occhialini confirmed the existence of the positron.[1]

Fowler was appointed as Massey's supervisor although it was clear that he did not need any supervision per se. Massey obtained his PhD on The Collisions of Material Particles in 1932.

Nevill Mott, Theory of Atomic Collisions (1933).[7] He also applied the theory of collisions to models of neutron structure. At the Cavendish laboratory, he also played hockey with Cockcroft, and cricket for the Cavendish Cricket Club, becoming team captain in his final year there.[1]

In June 1933 Massey became an independent

photo-ionisation of oxygen in the upper atmosphere.[12][13]

Massey was appointed Goldsmid Professor of Applied Mathematics at

Second World War.[1]

Second World War

A German magnetic mine

Soon after the outbreak of war in September 1939, the Germans began a

Lieutenant Commander J. G. D. Ouvry recovered an intact aerial mine from a mudflat at Shoeburyness, and the threat was revealed to be a magnetic mine.[14][15]

In December 1939, Massey joined a group at the Admiralty Research Laboratory in Teddington led by Stephen Butterworth. They were soon joined by a number of other physicists, including Bates, Buckingham, Francis Crick and John Gunn. Together, they came up with a series of countermeasures that enable the Navy to successfully sweep the mines. With this in hand, Massey became Deputy Chief Scientist to the Scientific Section of Mine Design Department at the Admiralty Mining Establishment in Havant in early 1941. This time, the job was to create mines as good as the German ones. Massey brought his team with him. While Bates worked on packaging to protect the mine when it was dropped from an aircraft, Buckingham and Gunn calculated its theoretical effectiveness, and Crick designed the circuitry. Their mine codenamed MX, was soon in service, and the group turned its attention to developing acoustic or pressure mines. On the retirement of A. B. Wood in 1943, Massey became Chief Scientist at Havant.[1]

After the August 1943

uranium enrichment process such as uranium tetrachloride (UCl4) and uranium hexafluoride (UF6).[17] Oliphant returned to Britain in March 1945,[16] and was replaced as head of the British mission in Berkeley by Massey.[18] Wartime papers produced by the group were collected and published in The Characteristics of Electrical Discharges in Magnetic Fields (1949).[19]

Later life

Massey returned to University College London, in October 1945 to find it badly damaged by bombing, and the Mathematics Department in dingy temporary accommodation. He was allowed to pick his own lecturers, so he chose Bates, Burhop, Buckingham and Gunn. While they had to teach mathematics, they were free to choose their own research topics, so they chose to research physics, carrying out physical experiments.[1] This situation lasted until 1950, when Edward Andrade retired, and Massey was appointed Quain Professor of Physics and head of the University College London, Physics Department.[8] The department was merged with Astronomy in 1973, but he remained its head until he retired in 1975.[20][21] He also served as University College London's Vice-Provost from 1969 to 1973.[2]

The 40" telescope dome at Siding Spring Observatory, New South Wales.

When Massey took over the Physics Department, most of his physicists, including Bates, Buckingham, Burhop and

Atomic Energy Authority.[1] Dick Jennings and Franz Heymann built two microtrons.[22] Under Massey, the Physics Department moved away from researching the physics of metals and liquids, and focused on particle physics and upper atmosphere physics.[20] Massey saw the potential of computers. He arranged with Andrew Booth for a copy of his All Purpose Electronic Computer, and recruited two programmers, Joan Lawson and Jane Wallace. When the University of London established a computing unit, Buckingham left to head it.[1]

Elected a

knighted for his services in 1960.[23] He was also a member of both the American Philosophical Society and the United States National Academy of Sciences.[24]

A Black Arrow launch vehicle in the rocket park at Woomera, South Australia, similar to the one that launched the only satellite launched with a British launcher

European Space Research Organization and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London.[2]

Space science also gave Massey an excuse to visit Australia; he made some twenty trips. He was involved in the testing of balloons for upper atmosphere research at the University of Melbourne's site in

Siding Spring Mountain in New South Wales. He was a United Kingdom member and deputy chairman of the telescope's governing board from 1975 to 1980, and chairman from 1980 to 1983.[2]

Massey received honorary doctorates from both Queens University Belfast (1955)[26] and Heriot-Watt University (1975).[27]

Death and legacy

After a long illness, Massey died at his home in

Harrie Massey Medal and Prize, jointly awarded by the Australian Institute of Physics and British Institute of Physics.[31] His papers are in the University College London archives.[32]

Hoddles Creek Primary School, the state school attended by Massey during his childhood, named Massey House (one of the school's four houses) in his honour. A pine tree planted by Massey on the school grounds in 1937 remains, as well as a plaque commemorating Massey's achievements.

Bibliography

Notes

  1. ^ Bibliographical Memoirs of the Royal Society says he was born in St Kilda, Victoria,[1] but the Australian Dictionary of Biography says Invermay, Victoria.[2]

References

  1. ^
    S2CID 71258564
    .
  2. ^
    ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  3. OCLC 426938310
    .
  4. ^ "Harrie Massey (Deceased)". Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  5. ^ Harrie Massey at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  6. ^ Massey, Harrie Stewart Wilson. "The Collisions of Material Particles". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  7. Bibcode:1984QJRAS..25..530S
    .
  8. ^ a b "Obituary: Professor Sir Harrie Massey". The Times. London. 2 December 1983. p. 18.
  9. JSTOR 20490736
    .
  10. doi:10.1098/rspa.1938.0178
    .
  11. S2CID 96039164
    .
  12. doi:10.1098/rspa.1937.0243
    .
  13. S2CID 97373737
    .
  14. ^ a b Roskill, S. W. (1954). The War at Sea, 1939–1945. Vol. 1, The Defensive. London: H.M.S.O. p. 100.
  15. ^ Sainsbury, A. B. (4 May 1993). "Obituary: Commander J. G. D. Ouvry". The Independent. Archived from the original on 9 May 2022.
  16. ^
    ISBN 978-0-9594164-0-4
    .
  17. S2CID 123018692
    .
  18. ^ "Eric H. S. Burhop interviewed by Hazel de Berg for the Hazel de Berg collection". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  19. OCLC 552825
    .
  20. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31419. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  21. ^ "50th Anniversary of the UK's first step into space". University College London. 26 April 2012.
  22. ^ Grozier, Jim. "A History of Early High Energy Physics Research at UCL – The Microtrons". University College, London. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  23. ^ "No. 41953". The London Gazette. 12 February 1960. p. 1081.
  24. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  25. ^ Fox, J. W. "From Lardner to Massey". University College, London. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  26. ^ Belfast Telegraph 7 July 1955
  27. ^ "Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates". www1.hw.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  28. ^ "Prizes and Awards". Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  29. ^ "Harrie Massey Lecture Theatre". University College, London. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  30. ^ "Harrie Massey Prize". University College, London. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  31. ^ "Harrie Massey Medal and Prize". Australian Institute of Physics. Archived from the original on 16 July 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  32. ^ "Sir Harrie Massey Papers". University College London. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  33. doi:10.1017/S1323358000021974
    .
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