Physics at Oxford

Abstract

THE new Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford, which was completed early in 1940, has been used during the War entirely for research on radar and on the separation of isotopes. With the advent of peace it is to be hoped that the Oxford Physics School will be able to resume research in the low-temperature field, for which it was so well known, and in the domain of nuclear physics. With the increased Government grants which are becoming available, the University of Oxford will no doubt do its part in extending research as well as teaching. But with all the conflicting claims there is bound to be a great deal of delay and frustration in obtaining new money for special researches, even in such an important subject as physics. The offer of the Nuffield Foundation to provide an annual grant of £8,000 for eight years to the Clarendon Laboratory in order to enable research to be expanded in Oxford beyond anything the University might reasonably be expected to finance is therefore particularly satisfactory. With this benefaction the Department should be able to tide over the transitional period and to develop rapidly the Physics School at Oxford on a proper scale. Approximately £5,500 is to be devoted to Nuffield Foundation fellowships, and the donors properly-and somewhat exceptionally-have realized that extra research fellows entail extra expenditure in the way of technical assistants and so forth, and have accordingly made provision for another £2,500 a year to be used for such purposes. By this judicious and timely gift, Lord Nuffield has greatly added to the debt which science in Britain already owes him.