Great Scot April 2019 Great Scot_156_April_2019_Online | Page 65

COMMEMORATING
AN OUTSTANDING
SCIENTIST WITH
A RARE SCOTCH
PEDIGREE
TIM SHEARER ('85) WITH GWEN HEAD
Dr Alan Kenneth Head AO FRS (SC
1941-42) was a theoretical physicist and Chief
Research Scientist at the CSIRO. Alan had a
fascinating Scotch pedigree: his great-great-
grandfather, William Head, settled on the
current site of Scotch as an employee of John
Gardiner in 1838.
Alan was Dux of Ballarat Grammar School
in 1940, and entered Scotch in 1941 on a half
Senior Entrance Scholarship as a boarder in
Arthur Robinson House. Quickly making his
mark, he was Dux of Scotch in 1942, achieving
honours in all five of his Leaving examination
subjects. He was awarded the University
Exhibition in Mathematics I and III, and received
one of nine Government Senior Scholarships
awarded to Scotch boys. He was also awarded
a resident scholarship to Ormond College,
graduating with a BA in Mathematics in 1945
and a BSc in Physics in 1946.
Alan tutored mathematics at Trinity College
in 1947 and in 1948 he became a Research
Officer at CSIR’s Aeronautical Research
Laboratory at Fishermans Bend. (CSIR was the
predecessor of the CSIRO.)
On 8 March 1951 Alan married
Gwenneth Nancy (Gwen) Barlow and went
to the University of Bristol in England on a
Department of Supply studentship. His PhD
was awarded in 1954. In 1957 he joined
CSIRO’s Division of Tribophysics, and became
renowned for his research into the structure
of solids and their application to industry,
beginning with research into fatigue cracks in
aeroplanes. Melbourne University awarded
him the degree of DSc in 1963, and the
Syme Medal in 1969. Alan was elected to the
Australian Academy of Sciences in 1971 and
the Royal Society of London in 1988. For about
22 years he was a Chief Research Scientist at
the CSIRO.
In the 1992 Queen’s Birthday honours, Alan
was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.
He died on 9 January 2010. Alan’s photograph
and a biography appear on a plaque in the
stairwell of the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre
for Science, among a collection of plaques
honouring many of Scotch’s illustrious Old Boy
scientists.
Alan’s wife, Gwen, has donated to Scotch
a significant collection of her husband’s
certificates and awards, including a certificate
appointing Alan as an Officer in the General
Division of the Order of Australia (AO) in June
1992, a presentation box containing Alan’s
Order of Australia medal, and other significant
awards and appointments accorded to Alan.
The items will be displayed at Scotch to inspire
Scotch boys to emulate Alan’s achievements
in science.
Gwen has made a bequest to Scotch which
will enable a scholarship to be established in
perpetuity, to be known as the Professor Alan
K Head Scholarship. As Gwen has made this
bequest, she has been warmly welcomed to
membership of the Alexander Morrison Circle.
Set up in 2003, the AMC recognises the
generosity of people who have indicated they
will remember Scotch in a bequest, as part of
their charitable intention.