Engineering Professor Takes Australian Post

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31649, 8 April 1968, Page 12

Engineering Professor Takes Australian Post

Professor F. M. Henderson, of Canterbury University, has been appointed professor of civil engineering at Newcastle University, New South Wales.

Professor Henderson has a distinguished reputation in hydraulic engineering and is the author of a text-book used in many universities. He is widely known for his scholarship and interest in national projects. Since 1952 he has trained hundreds of students in his specialities of fluid mechanics and hy-

draulics. He has run refresher courses for engineers on specific projects and has had many papers published in overseas journals. He has been a vigorous advocate of the expansion of research and post-graduate studies. He entered Canterbury Col-

lege in 1939 as a junior university scholar and took a bachelor of civil engineering degree with honours and a senior scholarship in engineering.

While employed in Wellington he continued part-time studies at Victoria university and graduated bachelor of science in 1943 and master of science with equivalent honours in 1950. Until 1952 he was employed by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research on industrial design investigations for the Ministry of Works.

In 1949 he spent four months at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the foreign students summer project and then toured the major hydraulics laboratories in the United States.

In 1952 he took up the appointment of senior lecturer in Canterbury and spent the summer of 1956-57 as visiting lecturer in fluid mechanics at the University of Michigan. His knowledge of hydroelectric, river and harbour work and hydraulic controls resulted in continuing consultations from American interests.

After his American experience and attendance at the Australian computation and automatic control conference in 1960, Professor Henderson was one of the first to urge acquisition of the high-speed computer since installed at the School of Engineering.

He conducted a national refresher course for engineers in 1960, was retained to advise on th" Waimakariri river control scheme, and took a keen interest in alternative schemes for the raising of levels in the southern lakes. Professor Henderson is married with four children.