Huxley, Leonard George Holden

• Sir Leonard Huxley KBE

Leonard George Holden Huxley was born on 29 May 1902 at Dulwich in London, England. His family migrated to Australia in 1905 and eventually settled in Tasmania. Huxley studied at New College, Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship (BA, 1925; DPhil, 1928; MA, 1929). From January 1930 to September 1931 Huxley was in Canberra as Physicist, Radio Research Board, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. He returned to England as lecturer in physics at University College, Nottingham, then as Head of Physics, University College, Leicester 1932-1940. During the war he was Principal Scientific Officer, Ministry of Aircraft Production 1940-1946. He was appointed to Reader in Electromagnetism, University of Birmingham 1946-1949; Professor and Elder Chair of Physics, University of Adelaide 1949-1960. Huxley was a member of the council of the University of Adelaide 1953-60, and of the Australian National University 1956-59. In 1960 he was appointed to the executive of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), before he was invited to succeed Sir Leslie Melville as Vice-Chancellor of the ANU. Huxley joined the ANU on 30 September 1960. He was a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and the first President of the Australian Institute of Physics 1962-1965. After his retirement in 1967, Huxley was a Visiting Fellow in the Research School of Physical Sciences at the ANU 1968-1970. Sir Leonard Huxley died on 4 September 1988 in London, England.

academic; physicist; university administrator

Entered from deposit description on 15 May 2012

Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/huxley-sir-leonard-george-holden-516 (accessed on 15 May 2012)
Obituraries Australia, http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/huxley-sir-leonard-george-holden-516 (accessed 15 on May 2012)