no 17 2004 Chairman's Report 2004

Chairman's Report

Presented at the 17^th Annual General Meeting
held in the Poynting Building, Physics Department
University of Birminham, on 30^th October 2004

Our year of course begins at the time of the last AGM which was held at the Institute of Physics on 11^th October 2003 when we also had a meeting with the theme of 'Discoveries, Theories and Natural Philosophers' in which we had three lectures:

Denis Weaire: 'Thomson and Fitzgerald' - Natural Philosophers'
Vincent McBrierty: 'Life and Times of Ernest Walton'.
This lecture marked the centenary of Walton's birth. We were delighted that Alan Walton, one of his sons was among the audience.
Isobel Falconer: ' Formulating a theory: J.J. Thomson and Ernest Rutherford's collaboration on X-ray ionisation'

The lectures were very well received - and we were particularly grateful to Vincent McBrierty who stepped in at very short notice because of Colin Hempstead's illness.

Chris Green represented us at the lecture marking the 60^th anniversary of the founding of the Hospital Physicists Association on 27^th November at the Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering at UCL. It was given by Sidney Osborne the only surviving member of the original founding members.

Perhaps the most interesting event arose from Dennis Weaire's enthusiasm that the IOP History of Physics Group should get closer with the corresponding group of the European Physical Society and he organised, together with Jacques Treiner of ESPCI, the École Supérior de Physique et de Chimie Industrielle in Paris, a joint meeting with the concept of an 'Entente Cordiale Scientifique'. The lectures were at ESPCI on Saturday 18^th September and included a study of Louis Néel and the French Tradition in Magnetism by John Coey of Trinity College Dublin and the role of Science Museums by Neil Brown. On the Sunday morning there were committee meeting by both this Group and the EPS Group and in the afternoon we were taken around the physics activities of the Palais de Découverte - which we all found incredibly impressive. The whole event was very enjoyable, but it was also highly informative on how things are handled slightly differently in the two countries, and I trust we can arrange other joint meetings - the next one presumably being in Britain or Ireland.

Turning to changes in our committee, unfortunately Colin Hempstead had to resign because of ill-health. We will miss him since though fairly new to the committee he was full of ideas and enthusiasm.

Another member who felt he must resign has a happier reason. That is Chris Ray who has been appointed as High Master of Manchester Grammar School - we are of course delighted that a physicist has been appointed to so prestigious a position, but we will again miss him. He had volunteered to become editor of our Newsletter - so a consequence is that we have unfortunately had no Newsletter this year.

Joining the Committee are:

Jeff Hughes from the University of Manchester
Kate Crennell from the Rutherford Laboratory
Adrian Jackson from Queen Elisabeth School, Barnet

A sad matter to report is the death earlier this year of Bernard Spurgeon, a stalwart early member of the Group. His obituary was published in the paper version of our newsletter no 17 page10.

Finally, I have to record that this is my last Chairman's Report since at this meeting I come to the end of my term, and, of course, give my best wishes to my successor and to the Group.

Ian Butterworth, Chairman

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