Abstract
BY electing Sir Henry Tizard as their president, the Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford, have made a timely and important break with Oxford tradition, for he is the first man of science to become a head of a college there. When the country can spare him from his present extremely important duties as a member of the Air Council and of the Advisory Council of the Ministry of Aircraft Production, he will return to his old college with a mind enriched by an exceptionally wide and varied experience in the arts of war and peace. He won his spurs in scientific research under the guidance of Prof. Townsend, and his valuable work with Dr. Pye on adiabatic compression of gases made a link with internal combustion engineering which he has maintained ever since. The War of 1914-18 turned his thoughts and efforts to aeronautical research, and he has long exerted a highly important directing influence on British aircraft development, and on the solution of the problems of air warfare, offensive and defensive ; these services have stood the nation in good stead during the present great struggle for a free world. The guidance of State assistance to research in pure science and in industry occupied him for eight years between the two Wars, and from that he turned to the administration of scientific and technical education, as rector of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, which has greatly prospered under his leadership. At Oxford, as in London, it is certain that he will not only be successful as head of his College, but also take a prominent part in science, education and national affairs.
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Sir Henry Tizard, K. C. B., F. R. S. Nature 150, 148 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150148b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150148b0