PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27631, 12 April 1955, Page 12

PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS

APPOINTMENT OF DR. A. G. MCLELLAN WORK ON RADAR AND URANIUM The new professor of physics at Canterbury University College will be Dr A. G. McLellan, senior lecturer at Otago University, who is studying in Britain on a Nuffield Scholarship. Professor McLellan was engaged in the war-time development of radar in New Zealand, apparatus for the detection of uranium, and micro-wav* transmitting apparatus. - Born in Christchurch, Professor McLellan was educated at the Westport Primary and Technical High Schools, where he was dux and obtained a scholarship to spend a year at Nelson College. He was also dux of Nelson College, won the Littlejohn prjze in mathematics, and the Chaytor scholarship in chemistry, and was awarded a junior university scholarship, being placed second in New Zealand. After entering Otago University in 1938, Professor McLellan graduated bachelor of science in 1940, and took his master of science degree a year later, with first-class honours in both mathematics and physics. He was awarded the senior scholarship in mathematics and the George Young Scholarship in 1941, the Cook memorial prize in mathematics, the postgraduate scholarship in science, and the Duffus Lubecki Scholarship in applied science in 1942. The detection of ships by infra-red radiation was the subject of his master’s thesis, and he continued this work as an officer of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Transferred to the Radio Development Laboratory in Wellington in 1943, Professor McLellan was engaged in the development of radar, and was later head of the section developing the micro-wave transmitter.

The construction of apparatus for detecting uranium was another assignment in 1944, and this equipment was used when Professor McLellan joined the Geological Survey’s team to prospect for uranium in many parts of New Zealand, including Fiordland. He designed and constructed GeigerMueller counters, ionisation chambers, and a radon extraction furnace for the laboratory analysis of the uranium content of the mineral samples. Other members of his section developed the electronic equipment. Post-war Work At the end of the war Professor McLellan spent three months at the agronomy division at Lincoln, working on the statistical design of agricultural experiments. When he took up his post-graduate scholarship in 1946, Professor McLellan studied theoretical physics at Edinburgh University, and under Professor Max Bom he undertook research cn the dynamic theory of crystals and the molecular theory of fluids, being awarded a doctorate of philosophy in 1948 for a thesis on the latter topic. • Returning to Otago University in 1949, Professor McLellan became lecturer in physics and was promoted to senior lecturer in 1953. He continued his work on the molecular theory of fluids, and has published three papers in the proceedings of the Royal Society, London. Last year he spent two months studying and doing research with Professor H. S. Green in the mathematical physics department of the University of Adelaide. Professor McLellan left New Zealand last September on his Nuffield travelling scholarship. At present he is working under Professor H. C. Longuet-Higgins, who holds the chair of theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge. - Aged 35, Professor McLellan is married.