Payne-Scott and URSI, 1952: Her Last Experience as a Radio Astronomer

Abstract

Payne-Scott experienced a postscript to her career as a radio astronomer in August 1952, 13 months after her resignation which had occurred a few months before the birth of her son, Peter Hall, in November 1951 (Chap. 4). The first international congress to be held in Australia had been the Second Pan-Pacific Science Congress almost 30 years earlier, in August 1920, in Melbourne and Sydney.1 One of the first international congresses, however, that had ever been held outside the US and Europe, the tenth URSI (International Scientific Radio Union) General Assembly, took place at the University of Sydney from 11 to 21 August 1952.2 On 22 and 23 August there was an official visit to Canberra where Sir Edward Appleton gave another lecture. Figure 10.1 shows the arrival in Sydney by ship (the P&O RMS Strathmore ) of Appleton, the URSI President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh (third from left) being welcomed by the Australian hosts. From the left the others were D.F. Martyn from the Radio Research Board, Canberra (URSI Vice President and Chair of Commission V, Radio Astronomy), Colonel E. Herbays (Brussels, Secretary of URSI), E.G. Bowen (RP Chief), and J.L. Pawsey (RP Assistant Chief). Many of the European guests had spent more than a month on board ship across the Indian Ocean. Brian Robinson (2002) has suggested that many of the delegates to the conference must have spent many days in discussions during the trip to Sydney.3 Many well known overseas guests attended the Assembly, including Sydney Chapman from Oxford, J. Ratcliffe from Cambridge, B. van der Pol from Geneva (CCIR, the International Radio Consultative Committee), A.H. de Voogt from The Hague, M.L. Oliphant from the Australian National University in Canberra, S. Silver from the University of California, Berkeley, C.R. Burrows of Cornell, John Dellinger of RCA in the US, and Sir John Madsen of Sydney University (also Chair of the Australian Organising Committee). About sixty overseas delegates from thirteen countries were in attendance as well as more than 250 Australian attendees; the conference included toursof Sydney, the local beaches, a harbour cruise and an excursion to Wollongong on the South Coast, which included a tour of the Dapto field station. The 2 weekends were spent at Jenolan Caves and the Federal Capital, Canberra (with visits to Mount Stromlo Observatory).KeywordsMagnetic StormRadio AstronomyInternational CongressSynchrotron EmissionRadio NoiseThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.