Leslie H. Martin

Professor Sir Leslie H. Martin
Born	(1900-12-21)21 December 1900 Footscray, Victoria
Died
Residence	Australia England
Citizenship	Australian
Fields	Physics
Institutions	University of Melbourne, Australian Universities Commission, University of New South Wales
Alma mater	University of Melbourne, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford
Doctoral advisor	Ernest Rutherford
Other academic advisors	T. H. Laby
Notable awards	Fellow of the Royal Society

Professor Sir Leslie Harold Martin CBE, FAA, FRS (21 December 1900 – 1 February 1983) was an Australian physicist and Higher Education Advisor. He was one of the 24 Founding fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and had a significant influence on the structure of Higher Education in Australia.

Early days

Martin was born 21 December 1900 in Footscray, in Melbourne. He won a Junior State Scholarship to Melbourne High School for his final years of secondary schooling. His mathematics teacher, Miss Julia Flynn, encouraged him; he won a Victorian Education Department Senior Government Scholarship and commenced a BSc at the University of Melbourne with the scholarship. In 1921, in the final year of the course for the BSc degree, he came top of his year with first class honours in Natural Philosophy (physics) and was awarded the Dixson Scholarship in Natural Philosophy. In 1922, under the supervision of Professor T. H. Laby, he completed a master's degree in Science obtaining first class honours and both the Dixson and Kernot Scholarships.

Family

• Martin was married on 13 February 1923 to Gladys Maude Elaine Bull
• Their first son, Leon Henry Martin, born in Cambridge on 25 April 1924, died at sea in July 1926.
• Their second son, Raymond Leslie Martin, was born on 3 February 1926.

Academic career

Cambridge

In 1923, Martin won an Overseas Scholarship of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 to study at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, under Ernest Rutherford who himself was an 1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholar. Martin completed his PhD in 1926. The results of this work were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London and the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. He was awarded an International Research Fellowship of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Natural Philosophy

In 1927 Martin was Lecturer and then in 1937 Associate Professor in Natural Philosophy at the University of Melbourne. In 1934, he won the coveted David Syme Research Prize.

War

With the outbreak of World War II Martin commenced projects at the request of the Australian Military. In January 1942, Martin was seconded to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Radiophysics Laboratory in Sydney to develop secret valves for Radio Direction Finder, the precursor to Radar.

Physics

In 1945 he became Professor of Physics at the University of Melbourne until 1959. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research created the Atomic Physics Section in 1947 led by Martin at the University of Melbourne. In 1948 he became a member of the Interim Council of the Australian National University. He was president of the Australian Branch of the Institute of Physics in 1952–53. From 1953 to 1963 he was a Trustee of the Science Museum of Victoria and its chairman in 1962 and 1963. He became a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1954 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1957. For his work in education and defence he was made a Companion of the Order of the British Empire in 1954. In 1957 he was a Pro-Vice-chancellor for the University of Melbourne. Martin was knighted in 1957 to honour his outstanding contributions to science. Some of his many other posts at this time included a Defence Scientific Adviser and Chairman of the Defence Research and Development Policy Committee and Commissioner of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission.

Australian Universities Commission

Martin was the full-time chairman of the Australian Universities Commission in August 1959 until he retired in 1966. He oversaw a rapid expansion of Australian higher education, including the commencement of five new universities. In 1961 he became Chairman of the Committee on the Future Development of Tertiary Education in Australia. The Committee’s advice led to a formalised ‘binary divide’ between the universities, as research and teaching institutions, and other higher education teaching institutions, mostly colleges of advanced education.

Military education

The links between his academic activities and his defence activities led him to work for the establishment of the Royal Australian Air Force Academy as an affiliated college of the University of Melbourne in 1961.

In 1967 Martin became the chairman of the government's Tertiary Education (Services' Cadet Colleges) Committee that began planning for the Australian Defence Force Academy. During this year he also became Professor of Physics and the first Dean of the Faculty of Military Studies for the University of New South Wales, at the Royal Military College, Duntroon until he retired in 1971.

Retirement

At first he and Lady Martin lived quietly in Canberra but then moved back to Melbourne where they could be near their four much-loved grandchildren. Martin suffered a stroke in 1979. He made a remarkable recovery from his first stroke. He died unexpectedly 1 February 1983.

LH Martin Institute

The University of Melbourne formed the LH Martin Institute on 30 August 2007. The Institute is interdisciplinary and has as its key objectives:

• to train the next generation of leaders of Australia’s tertiary education in the strategic management of their institutions;
• to provide a forum in which public policy makers, public and private sector institutions and national and international experts can explore, assess and anticipate the changing national and international environment in which tertiary education operates; and
• to support its educational programs with scholarship and research.

Sir Leslie Martin Prize

In 1971 RMC Duntroon established the Sir Leslie Martin Prize which has been awarded every year until 1985, and from then at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) since 1986 to the present. The prize is awarded for 'distinguished performance by a First Year Officer Cadet in First Year Physics' from all streams, that is, all Physics, Engineering and Arts students who take Physics I.

Career Highlights

• 1921 Bachelor of Science (BSc) completed at the University of Melbourne
• 1923 Master of Science (MSc) completed at the University of Melbourne
• 1923 – 1926 1851 Exhibition Scholar at the University of Oxford
• 1927 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) completed at the University of Cambridge (Cavendish Laboratory), UK
• 1927 Rockefeller Fellow
• 1927 – 1937 Senior Lecturer in Natural Philosophy at the University of Melbourne
• 1934 David Syme Prize jointly received
• 1937 – 1945 Associate Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Melbourne
• 1945 – 1959 Professor of Physics at the University of Melbourne
• 1945 John Smyth Memorial Medal received from the University of Melbourne
• 1946 R.M. Johnston Memorial Medal received from the Royal Society of Tasmania
• 1948 – 1968 Defence Scientific Adviser and Chairman of the Defence Research & Development Policy Committee
• 1952 – 1953 President of the Institute of Physics, Australian branch
• 1954 Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA)
• 1954 Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
• 1957 Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
• 1957 Knight Bachelor
• 1958 – 1968 Commissioner with the Australian Atomic Energy Commission
• 1959 – 1966 Chairman of the Australian Universities Commission
• 1966 Honorary Fellow, Australian College of Educators (FACE)
• 1967 – 1970 Dean of the Faculty of Military Studies and Professor of Physics at the University of New South Wales at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Canberra
• 1971 – Sir Leslie Martin Prize established at the Royal Military College

Publications

• The high frequency K series absorption spectrum of erbium. Royal Society of Victoria. Proceedings., 35 (1922), 164–169.
• (With E.C. Stoner) The absorption of x-rays. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A, 107 (1925), 312–331.
• Some measurements on the absorption of x-rays of long wave-length. Cambridge Philosophical Society. Proceedings., 23 (1927), 783–793.
• The efficiency of K series emission by K ionised atoms. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A, 115 (1927), 420–442.
• (With K.C. Lang) X-ray absorption coefficients in the range 0.3 to 2.0 Å. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A, 137 (1932), 199–216.
• (With K.C. Lang) The thermal conductivity of water. Physical Society, London. Proceedings., 45 (1933), 523–529.
• (With W.G. Kannuluik) Conduction of heat in powders. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A, 141 (1933), 144–158.
• (With W.G. Kannuluik) The thermal conductivity of some gases at 0 °C. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A, 144 (1934), 496–513.
• (With J.C. Bower and T.H. Laby) Ionization in gases by x-rays as shown by expansion chamber observations. Sydney. University. Cancer Research Committee. Journal., 6 (1934), 131–143.
• (With J.C. Bower and T.H. Laby) Auger effect in argon. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A, 148 (1935), 40–46.
• (With F.F.H. Eggleston) The Auger effect in xenon and krypton. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A, 158 (1937), 46–54.
• (With F.F.H. Eggleston) The angular distribution of photoelectrons from the K shell. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A, 162 (1937), 95–110.
• (With A.A. Townsend) The beta-ray spectrum of RaE. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A, 170 (1939), 190–205.

See also

• LH Martin Institute
• UNSW@ADFA Student Prizes
• Photo of Professor Sir Leslie H. Martin, circa 1970 in University of Melbourne Archive