Murray Winn
Tony Parkinson
My contributions to the SUGAR and cloud chambers experiments are posted separately. I left SydUni in 1974 after 15 years there. I had obtained an offer of a Lectureship in Physics at Caulfield, which became part of Monash University (*), but I couldn't make the move to Melbourne due to family commitments. I started a coaching/teaching business, which suited me as I had enough time for continuing my research studies using Macquarie and Sydney Uni libraries. Without access to computing and other facilities, I became a theoretician. I researched and wrote up a number of topics, and I can briefly outline some interests, and why they began. My interest in Cascade Theory was sparked by reading the theoretical papers especially by Janossy and Messel and his colleagues. Also from my time in Cosmic Rays, the development of a phase-locked oscillator (for SUGAR) produced a certain class of nonlinear difference equations, which were proven to be purely periodic. I also intensively studied Generalized Hypergeometric Functions, after being initially inspired by the delightful book "Generalized Hypergeometric Series" by W.N. Bailey (**).
Finally, I had to sell the business. While recovering from a long illness I had to get back into the workforce and the NSW Dept of Education was offering older graduates paid studentships to complete an accelerated DipEd in Mathematics in Newcastle. This produced a mixed bunch of interesting people (like two petroleum geologists in a recession and even a postman!), and we were put up in the Maitland Nurses' Home and bussed in to Newcastle each day. The DipEd was completed in 6 months and I taught maths in NSW schools for a couple of years. Personally, I quite enjoyed meeting teachers and students from various backgrounds and I was a bit surprised to find most of the teachers I met were quite dedicated, despite being compulsorily unionized and in the NSW Public Service. On sports days I even became a useful cricket and volleyball umpire, but I have to admit one of my students was the son of a NZ volleyball champion and so I was his student.
Despite the breaks between terms, I found high school maths teaching hard work for minimum rewards. Next, I applied to the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) at Pyrmont and became a Research Scientist in Operations Research supporting the Navy. Not surprisingly, there were quite a few old SydUni graduates in the heritage building on the waterfront, including our own Tony Bray from Cosmic Rays.
At DSTO my research was mostly on underwater acoustics and signal processing. In particular, I was involved in studies of passive sonar tracking in support of the Collins-class submarines then being built. As a bonus I scored a trip on one of the older Oberon-class submarines out of SydHarb to study the sonar systems. And no, it's not like the Hollywood movies! I was a little "stressed" when I had to first sign a release form including my next of kin!! I was involved with various other sonar studies including support for the new (and old) patrol boats. Also I studied bottom of the sea sonar responses and characterization, and I got outdoors as I led a team which lowered a large sonar experimental apparatus to the bottom at various places around SydHarb from a Navy crane lighter.
I took advantage of Government largesse to complete two thesis Masters degrees with a few night lectures. At SydUni I studied Applied Maths and wrote my thesis on the Lorenz Equations and Chaos Theory. At the UNSW I studied Computer Science and wrote my thesis on Document Processing. Fortunately at DSTO, I had sole use of a brand new IBM mainframe - somebody must have overlooked the desktop PC revolution. Well old blokes have to keep the neurons firing.
Always my principal research concerned passive sonar tracking, and so later I was transferred to DSTO at Salisbury, north of Adelaide to support the sonar systems for the new submarine project.
It was not all plain sailing, and I can make my observations about DSTO, which employs an army of PhDs. There are quite a few dedicated and smart scientists, but they are in a minority. I have to say Commonwealth Public Service conditions and (non-compulsory) unionization have sadly produced a culture with an awful lot of dead wood, even in senior positions. This is not a good prospect for dedicated scientists, especially those starting a career.
(*) If interested in military matters, the book "Monash - The Outsider Who Won a War" by Roland Perry is recommended.
(**) In the Maths library, but Google returns a nice pdf scan.
My contributions to the SUGAR and cloud chambers experiments are posted separately. I left SydUni in 1974 after 15 years there. I had obtained an offer of a Lectureship in Physics at Caulfield, which became part of Monash University (*), but I couldn't make the move to Melbourne due to family commitments. I started a coaching/teaching business, which suited me as I had enough time for continuing my research studies using Macquarie and Sydney Uni libraries. Without access to computing and other facilities, I became a theoretician. I researched and wrote up a number of topics, and I can briefly outline some interests, and why they began. My interest in Cascade Theory was sparked by reading the theoretical papers especially by Janossy and Messel and his colleagues. Also from my time in Cosmic Rays, the development of a phase-locked oscillator (for SUGAR) produced a certain class of nonlinear difference equations, which were proven to be purely periodic. I also intensively studied Generalized Hypergeometric Functions, after being initially inspired by the delightful book "Generalized Hypergeometric Series" by W.N. Bailey (**).
Finally, I had to sell the business. While recovering from a long illness I had to get back into the workforce and the NSW Dept of Education was offering older graduates paid studentships to complete an accelerated DipEd in Mathematics in Newcastle. This produced a mixed bunch of interesting people (like two petroleum geologists in a recession and even a postman!), and we were put up in the Maitland Nurses' Home and bussed in to Newcastle each day. The DipEd was completed in 6 months and I taught maths in NSW schools for a couple of years. Personally, I quite enjoyed meeting teachers and students from various backgrounds and I was a bit surprised to find most of the teachers I met were quite dedicated, despite being compulsorily unionized and in the NSW Public Service. On sports days I even became a useful cricket and volleyball umpire, but I have to admit one of my students was the son of a NZ volleyball champion and so I was his student.
Despite the breaks between terms, I found high school maths teaching hard work for minimum rewards. Next, I applied to the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) at Pyrmont and became a Research Scientist in Operations Research supporting the Navy. Not surprisingly, there were quite a few old SydUni graduates in the heritage building on the waterfront, including our own Tony Bray from Cosmic Rays.
At DSTO my research was mostly on underwater acoustics and signal processing. In particular, I was involved in studies of passive sonar tracking in support of the Collins-class submarines then being built. As a bonus I scored a trip on one of the older Oberon-class submarines out of SydHarb to study the sonar systems. And no, it's not like the Hollywood movies! I was a little "stressed" when I had to first sign a release form including my next of kin!! I was involved with various other sonar studies including support for the new (and old) patrol boats. Also I studied bottom of the sea sonar responses and characterization, and I got outdoors as I led a team which lowered a large sonar experimental apparatus to the bottom at various places around SydHarb from a Navy crane lighter.
I took advantage of Government largesse to complete two thesis Masters degrees with a few night lectures. At SydUni I studied Applied Maths and wrote my thesis on the Lorenz Equations and Chaos Theory. At the UNSW I studied Computer Science and wrote my thesis on Document Processing. Fortunately at DSTO, I had sole use of a brand new IBM mainframe - somebody must have overlooked the desktop PC revolution. Well old blokes have to keep the neurons firing.
Always my principal research concerned passive sonar tracking, and so later I was transferred to DSTO at Salisbury, north of Adelaide to support the sonar systems for the new submarine project.
It was not all plain sailing, and I can make my observations about DSTO, which employs an army of PhDs. There are quite a few dedicated and smart scientists, but they are in a minority. I have to say Commonwealth Public Service conditions and (non-compulsory) unionization have sadly produced a culture with an awful lot of dead wood, even in senior positions. This is not a good prospect for dedicated scientists, especially those starting a career.
(*) If interested in military matters, the book "Monash - The Outsider Who Won a War" by Roland Perry is recommended.
(**) In the Maths library, but Google returns a nice pdf scan.
Colin Gauld
While engaged in work for my doctorate with the nuclear emulsion group I spent one year lecturing to medical students enrolled in their version of Physics 1. I enjoyed the experience so much that I decided to prepare myself for a career in tertiary physics teaching. My plan was to do a Dip Ed (which I completed in 1964, I think with Rod Cross), teach science for three years in a high school and then return to a School of Physics, hopefully better prepared for teaching.
However, I felt so comfortable teaching high school physics and mathematics that I remained for seven years in state and private schools in Australia and the UK.
In 1972 I took up a position as lecturer in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales where I was involved in the preparation of science teachers and began to be active in science education research. In 1991 I was transferred to the newly formed School of Teacher Education at Oatley where I remained until retirement in January 1999 when the School (along with the Oatley Campus) was closed. At that stage I was Head of School.
During that time I have been a member of the Australian Institute of Physics, The Science Teachers Association of NSW, The Australasian Science Education Research Association, The Association for Science Education (UK) and the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group. My career has taken me a long way from cosmic ray physics but I have pursued (along with other things) an interest in the teaching of mechanics and in its history. Other research interests have included the conceptions students have about physics concepts before being taught, the history and philosophy of science and science teaching, and the relationship between science and Christianity.
Since retirement I have been, for a short time, an Honorary Fellow in the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong and, until recently, a Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales.
Tony Bray
My life history - :
1961 Completed physics IV
1962 - 3 Teaching fellow USYD physics. Also involved with 64 S - M Sc for this work
1964 Part time lecturer USYD - filling in time while deciding what to do next.
1965 - 6 Arecibo Ionosheric Observatory - Radio astronomy with Cyril Hazard ( ex USYD )
1967 - 9 Uni Manchester - Nuffield Radio Astronomy Lab, Jodrell Bank. Cosmic Ray group. Ph D for this work.
1970 - 81 USYD again. SUGAR.
1982 Demonstrating in USYD physics U/G labs - this time mostly waiting for security clearance.
1983 - 2004 Dept of Defence , Marine Operations , DSTO - doing things I'm not allowed to talk about.
Now retired.
My involvement with 64 S was mainly in comparing the response of scintillators ( energy loss devices ) with geiger counters and cloud chambers ( particle counting devices ) and how this varies in different parts of showers and showers of different sizes. Ron Wand also had some interest in this.
On a purely practical note, I was responsible for correlating the main geiger array response with the 64 S records for shower size calculations - in those days the two systems were recorded entirely separately and the only common element was time from two separate clocks which did not always agree ! A lesson here somewhere.
My shift to Arecibo was a result of the Cornell - Sydney tie up of 1964. Cyril had already gone . There I was involved with his lunar occultation program.
Cyril was also responsible for my move to Manchester - he was originally from there. He wanted me to take the latest techniques we had developed in Arecibo.
However when I got there they found I had cosmic ray experience and so I was drafted into the completely new field of radio pulse emission from large air showers.
This was being done at Jodrell Bank because it needed facilities and expertise in making radio receiving systems. Most of the particle detectors in the triggering system came from Atomic Energy Research Establishment , Harwell.
Also the lab was located in the country side, mostly surrounded by farmland grazing cattle , where the radio noise level was reasonably low. This was fine until an outbreak of foot and mouth disease when it was certainly not so great.
After being away for 5 years , I returned to Sydney and was offered a place on the SUGAR team. A few research students, Juris and I worked on the unshielded spark chamber detectors used to measure the electron component of SUGAR showers. Because I was one of the few who did not have regular teaching commitments, I found myself running backwards and forwards to Narrabri , carting stuff and doing those jobs that need to be fitted in yesterday.
When SUGAR closed , was dismantled and the result analysis wrapped up , it was time to move on again.
However because of my time in US when I was technically employed by the US Air Force, the security clearance for Defence took for ever - or so it seemed - and I found myself filling in time again - teaching.
Laurie Wilson
My first encounter with the Physics School was in January 1963 when I attended one of Harry Messel's Science Schools (when Julius Sumner Miller made his first appearance). I started undergraduate Science in 1964 when one of our lecturers was a very young "Mr Peak". I finished up doing my PhD on the results of an electron/muon detector incorporated into the SUGAR array, finishing at the beginning of 1973. A couple of years were spent as a postdoctoral research assistant in the Atmospheric Physics Departmant at Oxford University before returning to Sydney, where I worked as a Senior Tutor with Ian Sefton in the First Year Lab.
I finally broke away from SU Physics in 1978 when I started work for the Ultrasonics Institute, which later became part of the CSIRO Radiophysics Division. Most of my research was in signal and image processing for medical ultrasound, but this soon diversified into a range of medical technology projects, finishing up working in Telehealth (where I was able to help bring some of the communications technology, developed for radio astronomy, into healthcare). I retired from full time work in 2008, but have continued some active academic work with honorary fellowships and adjunct professor positions at CSIRO, UTS and University of Western Sydney. And I have a lot more time to indulge my passion for photography.
Jim McCaughan
As for extended reminiscences I am probably the one that is least retired in that I still have 2 children at school, one doing HSC, first wedding 2 weeks ago and 2 wedding in September, writing my magnum opus and engaged in other correspondence. So let's take a few minutes now to contribute a token one for solidarity's sake.
Honours year 1960 worked with Dick Collins on cloud chambers under Don Millar. Should mention that a Silliac project on the response of the M-unit array was under the supervision of Dave Crawford; programming in machine code. Then did MSc on same double chambers under Millar in '61. Submitted Feb. '62 and left the following day for Sulphur Mtn, Banff, Alberta, Canada, for another double CC exercise. So never really worked on the 64S, but still helped Siok Hoon Seet with her little cloud chamber associated with the 64S as was Ron Wand's double CCs obtained from Jamaica, where John Lehane had worked as well as a good friend of mine, Bob Reid from Leeds had worked. These double CCs were part of McCusker's initiative when he was in Dublin, but continued with the Canadian initiative when in Sydney.
I remember that progress meetings were held in '61 in I think what is now rm 418 just along from the stair well from 2nd year lab, just past the display cabinets and beyond the 2 rooms, one occupied by Geoffrey Builder, the other by Phyllis Nicol. All the staff sat around a long table and the students on an outer ring around the staff. Harry Messel commented that I would learn about cold, when Millar (I think) announced I was being sent there the following year.
When I came back from Canada in '63, continued to work on the EAS density spectrum as the data continued to accumulate courtesy of Brian O'Donnell based in Calgary. In 1965 joined the permanent staff as a Senior Tutor-Demonstrator in the 2nd Year lab following the urging of Hugh Murdoch (hodoscope geiger counter array and recently deceased), who also had such a position. Once I could support myself Harry M allowed me to start a PhD working with Henry Rathgaber on Image Intensifiers, but supervised nominally by McCusker. The intensifiers proved to be frustrating as our English Electric ones were noisy and just as we tracked down the sources of the noise, some guy named Reynolds would publish as we were starting to write it up.
At the same time schools swapped from LC to HSC and an extra year. The fallow year was '67 and Charlie Watson-Munro assigned me the job of ordering and acceptance testing all the new equipment for the first year lab and John Lehane gave me an experiment to develop (C4). We set up prototypes of the 12 experiments in the deserted 1st year lab. WIBS Smith thought I was taking too long on developing my black body radiation experiment and barged in to fix it. He left puzzled. I learnt more about one aspect of experimental physics than in Cosmic Rays in that the information was not readily at hand to copy; every step had to be thought out from scratch.
As the caravan rolled on to 2nd year I had the job of doing a Frank-Hertz experiment helped by Murray Winn who designed a triac controlled heater for the oven. My other job was to learn about all the experiments in 2nd Year lab and instruct staff and demonstrators in their operation and results. So ''67. '68 were particularly heavy years and it took three years ('68-'70) to nut out all the quirks of the new 1st Year labs. I was by this time transferred to 1st Year but '68 was heavily committed to 2nd Year as well. So the PhD suffered (I should have been advised to suspend my candidature during this time). 5 years were almost up and had nothing worthwhile to write up. We had just one photograph of light generated by an air shower in one of the 64S plastic scintillators.
After some discussion I was allowed to write up my Canadian CC work once it was realised I hadn't used it for my MSc. So after 5 years it was almost back to square one. Submitted in '73, graduated '74. Went to Leeds in '76 where one of my thesis examiners was Cavendish (!) Professor, J.G.Wilson, not to be confused with C.T.R. Wilson, but both of CC fame. Eventually 2 research papers were published in JPhysG and two conference presentations at Paris in '81 and Bangalore '83 given. At Bangalore shared a room with Murray and Juris. Murray had spent a year at Leeds a couple of years before me and Chris Bell was there before me. Ran into Phil Riley at the Paris Conference.
In '82 had three papers on Harry M's desk in three months, Harry wrote me a short note saying congratulations Jim you have made it. The following month I met Genevieve and a whole new chapter in life started. The eighties were devoted to history of physics, biographies of our early professors and a history of the School in the Science Faculty centenary volume 'Ever Reaping Something New' . That came about because of a brochure done for the university on the Physics Building and the Faculty Chapter led to the 'Messel Era'.
18 months work on Vonwiller for 635 words in the Australian Dictionary of Biography did not seem to me a good investment. Vonwiller had written about his predecessors Threlfall and Pollock and had made my job of writing these two up straight forward as well as their both being FRSs there was international recognition. But no one had written about Vonwiller and what was worse a dodgy history was in existence of Cancer Research in the early years of the present Physics building (A28), which was marred by scandal and suicide. Vonwiller had to rescue it. So in a word I was 'jack' of history and biography.
My final contribution to Cosmic Rays came at the Dublin Conference in '91: thirty years after starting out. I was able to profile the development of the density spectrum in the lower atmosphere and to reproduce all aspects of the double index and break point. A few years ago Alan Watson FRS from Leeds was doing a history of EAS and told me I had the last word on the density spectrum.
So you see I was never part of 64S (except for Seet and quark search with Ian Cairns, i.e. wherever CCs were involved), or SUGAR; never part of the big teams of Cosmic Rays.
Afraid that will have to do. All the best, Jim.
Leo Goorevich
Professional:
- Did Physics IV in 1963. Practical component was in the emulsions group. Shared room in the basement with Laurie Byrne and John Syriatowicz, while being supervised by Lawrie Peak, Colin Gauld and Tony Gray.
- Started in SUGAR 1964 - initially testing and building the shift registers which stored the timing signal and then testing and building the high voltage supply for the photo-multipliers. Eventually focused on the computer side of things writing some of the initial programs to analyse the collected data. Submitted thesis in 1969 - on the energy spectrum. Also started the computer diploma as a side line - writing the "Silliac Simulator" with Peter Poole. Then found myself unemployed.
- In order to put food on the table and pay the rent, I worked at Macquarie Uni as Senior Tutor in 1969 until MMW phoned me to ask if I was interested in taking over the position of Michael Rathgeber, who had died while visiting Japan. I accepted before he had finished the sentence!
- Professional Officer in SUGAR 1970-1975 analysing the data from Narrabri. The programs were affectionately named Chunk1, 2 and 3 by Michael Rathgeber. Also continuing the Monte Carlo simulation work started by Michael,
- Then I got bored and asked my friend John Verne if the company where he worked (International Programming) could use my talents. Became his technical support person while he tried to flog IBM system software packages. When he left I took over his position as Manager and then Director.
- The company folded in 1980 and I started my own - Boole & Babbage Australia. Did reasonably well there until the American parent company cancelled my agency agreement around 1989 in order to set up their own subsidiary in Australia.
- Continued as consultant in computer and network support, as well as dabbling in various software product distributorships.
- Returned to Sydney Uni - in IT department in 1998 as Y2K Project Manager, then Team Manager in software development for student admin system 2000-11.
- Retrenched in 2011.
- Currently mostly occupied in various voluntary activities - OzHarvest; Refugee Language Program (at Sydney Uni); Powerhouse Museum; Australian Museum; picking up grandkids; playing bridge; even worked for a few months in a computer shop!
Andrew Bakich
Roger Brownlee
Ian Cairns
David Crawford
Andrew Fisher
Tony Gray
David Jauncey
CBA McCusker
Don Melley
Derek Nelson
Lawrence Peak
Mick Ryan
Juris Ulrichs
Ron Wand
Ron Wand
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