Monday, 25 December 2017
Saturday, 9 December 2017
Thursday, 16 November 2017
The Long Arc of History
In 1947, Charles Coulson was awarded a Chair in Theoretical Physics at King's College, London. Among Coulson's many Ph.D. students was Norman March.
Some time after receiving his Ph.D., March was appointed as a lecturer (later professor) in physics at the University of Sheffield. In due course, March acquired his own Ph.D students, who included Ken Banyard.
After completing his Ph.D., Ken joined the Department of Physics at the University of Leicester. Over time, Ken built up his own research group, and before his retirement in 1997, supervised many Ph.D. students – including this author.
Following his time at Kings College London, in 1952, Coulson was appointed Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford; over the next 20+ years, he blurred the boundaries between applied mathematics, physics and theoretical chemistry to the extent that in 1972 he was appointed to Oxford's newly created Chair of Theoretical Chemistry.
During Coulson's tenure at Oxford he set up a series of annual 'summer schools' in theoretical chemistry, to which postgraduate students or junior lecturers from across the world could apply to attend.
Some time after receiving his Ph.D., March was appointed as a lecturer (later professor) in physics at the University of Sheffield. In due course, March acquired his own Ph.D students, who included Ken Banyard.
After completing his Ph.D., Ken joined the Department of Physics at the University of Leicester. Over time, Ken built up his own research group, and before his retirement in 1997, supervised many Ph.D. students – including this author.
Following his time at Kings College London, in 1952, Coulson was appointed Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford; over the next 20+ years, he blurred the boundaries between applied mathematics, physics and theoretical chemistry to the extent that in 1972 he was appointed to Oxford's newly created Chair of Theoretical Chemistry.
During Coulson's tenure at Oxford he set up a series of annual 'summer schools' in theoretical chemistry, to which postgraduate students or junior lecturers from across the world could apply to attend.
Following Coulson's untimely death in 1974 the tradition of the summer school - by now renamed in his honour as the "Charles Coulson Summer School in Theoretical Chemistry" - was maintained by colleagues in the department. By 1976 these colleagues included Norman March, who was, that year, the first person to be appointed to Oxford's "Charles Coulson Chair of Theoretical Chemistry".
Applicants to the summer school did so by responding to adverts such as this one in the back of the 19th January 1978 edition of New Scientist:
Fast forward to Christmas 2016, and one of my presents from Amanda was Pennington's latest book, describing his experiences in performing King Lear in New York:
Fast forward again to this evening, and Amanda and I found ourselves in the University of Leicester's Peter Williams Lecture Theatre, attending a lecture organised under the auspices of Literary Leicester:
Who was this vaguely familiar figure sitting in the front row?
Yes, it was Michael Pennington - there to present extracts from his book, to perform speeches from Lear and to engage in a Q&A.
We were treated to an hour of spellbinding interest. On numerous occasions, and each time within the space of just a second or two, Michael changed from his conversational voice to that of Lear, and with no costume, no props, simply became him.
All too soon it was over, and we all retired to the Lecture Theatre foyer, where Michael graciously signed autographs - and so it was that, 39 years after I saw his performance, he signed my programme:
and we both expressed regret at the passing of so many of the other actors listed.
And so it was that, in September 1978, as a young postgraduate student, I found myself spending two weeks in Oxford in the somewhat august company illustrated below. Norman March is ringed; it is left to the interested reader to identify the author. The smile I am wearing belies the double sense of being an impostor, afraid of being found out at any moment: not only was I in the company of individuals who were, for the most part, considerably more knowledgeable than me, but I was also one of only a handful of theoretical physicists in a significantly larger group of chemists...
Aside: The group photo has been an integral part of each year's School. During my time there I was able to flick through the archives of documents relating to earlier schools, and suddenly found myself looking at a photo of my sister's late father-in-law, who had attended the school some 10-15 years earlier (and whose exhortation to "go for a walk - it's too late to worry now" had done much to calm my nerves the afternoon before my Maths A Level).
Our timetable during the two weeks of the school:
shows that on Thursday, 22nd September, 1978 we went to Stratford to see "Love's Labour's Lost"; here is my programme, showing that the part of Berowne was played by Michael Pennington:
Fast forward again to this evening, and Amanda and I found ourselves in the University of Leicester's Peter Williams Lecture Theatre, attending a lecture organised under the auspices of Literary Leicester:
Who was this vaguely familiar figure sitting in the front row?
Yes, it was Michael Pennington - there to present extracts from his book, to perform speeches from Lear and to engage in a Q&A.
We were treated to an hour of spellbinding interest. On numerous occasions, and each time within the space of just a second or two, Michael changed from his conversational voice to that of Lear, and with no costume, no props, simply became him.
All too soon it was over, and we all retired to the Lecture Theatre foyer, where Michael graciously signed autographs - and so it was that, 39 years after I saw his performance, he signed my programme:
and we both expressed regret at the passing of so many of the other actors listed.
He also signed my copy of his book:
Had I only searched a little harder in the loft before heading out I could have located, and then got him to sign, my RSC Hamlet programme, acquired in 1980 when I was attending a later "Advanced" Summer School - but that, as they say, is another story:
Had I only searched a little harder in the loft before heading out I could have located, and then got him to sign, my RSC Hamlet programme, acquired in 1980 when I was attending a later "Advanced" Summer School - but that, as they say, is another story:
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