CONFERENCE IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30066, 26 February 1963, Page 19

CONFERENCE IN AUSTRALIA

Dr. J. M. Austin Returns

More than 120 actentiste from all over the world attended the first Australian conference on electrochemis-

try, held in Sydney and Hobart this month. One of the six New Zealanders who attended, Dr. J. M. Austin, senior lecturer in chemistry at the University ot Canterbury, found much to interest him in the six days of lectures and papers. The conference was sponsored jointly by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and the universities of New South Wales and Tasmania. Dr. Austin was invited to attend by the conference committee, and was assisted financiaEy by that committee and by the University of Canterbury;

Two three-day sessions, one in Sydney and one in Hobart, were counted with visits to point of interest for the delegates. Two sessions were held on each day, and a wide variety of topics was covered by the speakers.

Electrochemistry—the application of electricity to chemistry—ls Dr. Austin's specialty, and he was particularly interested in discussions on the nature of electrolyte solutions. Other topics covered included electtroplating, the theory of electroproceeses and the nature of double layer. The topic also has an important application in the space age, concerned with the production of electricity by the fusion of hydrogen and oxygen in spacecraft. Dr. F. Gutman, of the University of New South Wales, and Professor H. Bloom, formerly of Auckland University and now of the University ot Tasmania, were among the leading personalities at the conference. Accompanying Dr. Austin from New Zealand were four scientists from Otago University and one from Auckland University. In his tours of university centres in Sydney and Bobart. Dr. Austinwao particularly fanpreeaed by the tempo of now building. The university sites wore well planned and provision had obviously been made tor **’**'