Abstract
PROF. R. W. DITCHBUBN, who has been appointed to succeed Prof. J. A. Crowther in the chair of physics in the University of Reading, (see Nature of March 30, p 401), graduated at Liverpool. In 1922 he went to cembridge, where he worked under Sir J. J. Thomson in the Cavendish Laboratory on the continuous absorption of light in potassium vapour. He held the Isaac Newton studentship during 1925-28. In 1928 he was elected fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and in the following year became Erasmus Smith's professor of natural and experimental philosophy. His researches in Dublin extended his earlier work on the continuous absorption of light in vapours of alkali metals. He also worked on the theory of optical instruments and the properties of thin films. During the War he returned temporarily to England to work for the Admiralty on problems connected with the psycho-physics of vision. Having wide humane interests and a natural capacity for administration, Prof. Ditchburn made opportunity in the midst of an active career as a physicist to shoulder the responsibilities of registrar of the School of Social Studies and to organise a great deal of social work through philanthropic channels. The influx of refugees into Eire during the last ten years much increased the scope of this work. His return to England will be a most opportune accession of administrative and research experience at a time when post-war university re-organisation is just getting under way.
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Physics at Reading: Prof. R. W. Ditchburn. Nature 158, 192 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/158192b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/158192b0