Group timeline: before 1960
Physics at Leicester pre-1960
1924/5 Physics and Chemistry Departments created with capital outlay of £30k.
A.C.Menzies appointed Lecturer.
1925/6 10 `day students’, including 2 Physics Hons
1927/8 First Leicester higher degree awarded to C P Snow BSc, MSc (Physics)
1928/9 Public lecture by A S Eddington on ‘The Mystery of Time’
1930/1 DSIR grant of £200 over 2 years to allow Dr Menzies to recruit first RA, C O Pringle from Belfast. Royal Society grant of £45 to buy optical density meter. Used by Mensies and Pringle for Nature paper ‘Raman Spectra of solid Nitrogen Peroxide’
1932 Menzies to chair at Southampton, replaced by Dr L G H Huxley (from U C Nottingham)
1933 British Association meeting at Leicester
1934/5 U/G 24 (FT), 1 (PT)
1936/7 DSIR set up observation centre for atmospheric pollution (housed in Chemistry)
5 publications from Huxley, mainly on gas discharge experiments.
1937/8 Dr Rosenthal (Hamburg) appointed to honorary post in medical physics
1938/9 Free U/G places for refugees
1939/40 Huxley to Air Ministry, replaced by Dr Stewardson (in UK from post in China due to war)
1941/2 Winter Radio School for armed forces technical officers. Sub-department in Radio set up, with science and arts U/Gs from across UK.
1942/3 Physics one of few Leicester Departments to grow, with state bursaries for many of 47 U/G students
1944/5 First UGC grant to Leicester, for £12k. A E Jennings appointed Asst. Lecturer in Physics
1945/6 Jennings left, C Hayward and D M McColl appointed as Asst. Lecturers.
0.75 ton of radio and electrical equipment awarded by Wireless Personnel Committee
1946/7 Stewardson appointed to first Chair in Physics
1947/8 Appointments of A Hunter (L) and C G Wilson and J E Wilson (AL)
1949/50 E Matsuoka and Miss C Sinclair appointed as Asst. Lecturers. C G Wilson resigned. Research in nuclear physics and X-ray studies of rare earth metals.
1 MeV Van der Graaf accelerator and SXR Vacuum Spectrometer built.
1951 Royal Charter granted to Leicester. Physics U/G numbers restricted by lab Space in Fielding Johnson, 32 Hons, 114 GS
1953 W Spear appointed as Lecturer
1954 P Russell appointed as Lecturer
1957 University status granted. K Banyard to Asst.Lecturer
1957/8 Plans for new Physics Building approved
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