A COVETED HONOUR

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 198, 19 May 1936, Page 8

A COVETED HONOUR

Dr. A. C. Aitken’s Royal Society Fellowship Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, May 18. Commenting on the election of Dr. A. C. Aitken, a former student and graduate of the University of Otago, as a Fellow of the Royal Society, Dr. W. B. Benham, F.R.S., curator of the Otago Museum, says the fellowship is awarded to citizens ot the British Empire for research in any of the pure or applied sciences, but that the research must have some quality of particular brilliance rather than mere quality. To illustrate the difficulty of obtaining this coveted honour, it is enough to mention that of the 147 candidates this year, only 17 were elected. “Dr. Aitken is the third New Zea-land-born Fellow, the second being Dr. J. W. Mellor, who was elected in 1927,” says Dr. Benham. “The third New Zealander is Lord Rutherford (1903). Each of these three came from comparatively humble homes and without any influence or financial advantages worked his way by means of scholarships at each stage of his educational career. The earliest fellowship to be conferred on a resident of New Zealand was that awarded to the late Sir James Hector, noted geologist and naturalist. It may not be without interest that, in addition to those already mentioned—namely, Professor Coleridge Farr (1928) and the late Dr. L. Cockayne (1912), who had the further distinction of receiving the Darwin Medal in 1928, may be added Dr. Tillyard (1925), some time director of the Cawthron Institute and. now at Canberra. Considering the small number of scientific workers in the Dominion, this record is rather notable.” At the University of Otago Dr. Aitken won his athletics “blue” as a high jumper.