Alan Walsh (physicist)

Alan Walsh
Born 19 December 1916
Hoddlesden, Darwen, Lancashire, England
Died 3 August 1998 (aged 81)
Melbourne, Australia
Known for Atomic absorption spectroscopy

Sir Alan Walsh FRS[1] (19 December 1916 – 3 August 1998) was a British/Australian physicist, originator and developer of a method of chemical analysis called atomic absorption spectroscopy.[2]

Walsh was born in Hoddlesden, Darwen, Lancashire, educated at Darwen Grammar School and studied physics at Manchester University.[3]

After working for several years in British industry he moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1946 to join the newly formed Chemical Physics Section of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (then CSIR, now CSIRO), where he worked until his retirement in 1977.[4] There he developed the innovative technique of using atomic absorption spectra, rather than atomic emission and molecular absorption spectra, in spectrochemical analysis.[3]

Walsh was made a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1958 and was President of the Australian Institute of Physics from 1967 to 1968.[2] In 1969, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Royal Society's Royal Medal in 1976.[5] In 1977, he was also awarded a Knight Bachelor for 'his distinguished service to science'. He became a member of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1982; in the same year he was awarded the Boyle Medal by the Royal Society of Chemistry.[2]

The Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) Alan Walsh Medal, awarded for significant contributions in physics by an Australian industrial physicist, is named in his honour.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Hannaford, P. (2000). "Sir Alan Walsh. 19 December 1916 – 3 August 1998: Elected F.R.S. 1969". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 46: 533. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1999.0100. JSTOR 770415.
  2. 1 2 3 McCarthy, G.J. "Walsh, Alan - Biographical entry". Encyclopedia of Australian Science. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 "16th National Congress 2005" (PDF). AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  4. ↑ "Biographical memoirs: Alan Walsh". Australian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2011-01-14.
  5. ↑ "Royal Medal". Retrieved 2008-12-06.

See also

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