Laby Family
Two generations of the Laby family were intimately involved with Physics
at the University. Thomas Howell Laby (1880-1946) (pictured right) overcame
pecuniary disadvantage to win an Exhibition of 1851 Science Research
Scholarship in 1905 which enabled him to study at the Cavendish Institute.
From Cambridge, he was appointed Professor of Physics at Victoria University,
Wellington, moving in 1915 to the Melbourne Chair of Natural Philosophy.
Laby's work was crucial in several aspects of Australian science. During
World War I he collaborated in the design of valves for an anti-gas
respirator. In the 1920s, he (with E O Hercus) succeeded in determining
the precise equivalent of heat. He worked on the use of radium in cancer
therapy and was Commonwealth Adviser on radium from 1929 to 1935. During
World War II, Laby chaired the Optical Munitions Panel until 1944.
Laby had supported the appointment of Copland as Vice-Chancellor against
Medley and relationships between the two were never easy. He also resigned
from a number of organisations such as the CSIR Australian Radio Research
Board and the Australian Institute of Physics over issues of policy
and principle. The Physics Department which he headed until 1942 was,
however, according to Mark Oliphant, "by far the best in the Southern
Hemisphere".
Jean Elizabeth Laby (1915-) worked with her father on the Optical Munitions
Panel. In architectural drawing classes in the School of Engineering,
her name was omitted from the customary roll call, because she was the
only woman student. She was appointed Senior Lecturer at the RAAF Academy,
Point Cook, in 1961, a position she occupied until 1982. During the
1970s she collaborated on the Climate Assessment Program of the US Department
of Transportation, funded by the Office of Naval Research and undertaken
with the University of Wyoming.
Her sister Eudora Betty Laby (1920-) also worked on the Optical Munitions
Panel and embarked on a career in statistics, working at the University,
the British Tabulating Machine Company, the CSIRO and Alcoa. She was
awarded an honorary MSc in 1985.
