N.Z. Physicist On Leave From U.S.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30470, 18 June 1964, Page 11

N.Z. Physicist On Leave From U.S.

A distinguished young New Zealand physicist, Dr. W. L. McLean, now an assistant professor at Rutgers University in the United States, is back in the Dominion on leave and this month he is leeturing at the University of Canterbury. Dr. McLean’s field is superconductivity in metals and alloys. He began this work as

a graduate of the University of Otago, took a Ph.D. after work at the Cavendish Laboratories, Cambridge, and had a year on the staff of the University of British Columbia before going to Rutgers. Rutgers has a high reputation for low-temperature work. Dr. McLean explained that super-conductivity occurs when some metals are reduced to temperatures far below freezing point. This was important in fundamental physics and also had some application in satellite signalling systems, he said.. Dr. McLean said he had been invited to Canterbury because the university last year acquired a helium liquifier which induces the very low temperatures required for this work. American universities offered magnificent research facilities for this and other work and this was a powerful influence in attracting staff. There was still a great need for staff because American universities were expanding so rapidly, Dr. McLean said. The emphasis had been on the sciences but now every field of education was having heavier demands. Unemployment Commoner “Americans are realising that higher education is essential,” said Dr. McLean. “The less-skilled jobs are disappearing, unemployment is becoming more common, and those who are qualified are getting the jobs—the better the qualifications, the better the jobs.” Dr. McLean said that the American high school system generally was not as comprehensive as that in New Zealand. Higher education, therefore, had to be given in the two-year colleges and in the initial years at the universities. This was where general education courses developed and often encouraged students, to go on to higher degrees, Dr. McLean said: Americans were now tending to accept the view that a sound education in the general sense was as valuable as specialised training.