Victor Albert Bailey (18 December 1895 – 7 December 1964) was a British-Australian physicist. The eldest of four surviving children of William Henry Bailey, a British Army engineer, and his wife Suzana (née Lazarus), an expatriate Romanian linguist, Bailey is notable for his work in ionospheric physics and population dynamics.

Victor Bailey
Born(1895-12-18)18 December 1895
Died7 December 1964(1964-12-07) (aged 68)
NationalityBritish–Australian
Alma materOxford University
Known forIonospheric physics
Nicholson–Bailey model
AwardsWalter Burfitt Prize (1955)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysicist
InstitutionsOxford University
University of Sydney
Doctoral advisorJohn Sealy Edward Townsend
Notable studentsRonald Ernest Aitchison

Biography

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Bailey read physics at The Queen's College, University of Oxford, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1919. Thereafter, he read for a Doctorate of Philosophy (D.Phil.) at Queen's College, under the supervision of John Sealy Edward Townsend, the Wykeham Professor of Physics and Fellow of New College, Oxford. His D.Phil. thesis was entitled "The Diffusion of Ions in Gases", and he graduated in 1923.[citation needed]

Bailey was employed as a demonstrator in the Electrical Laboratory at Oxford and occasional lecturer, at Queen's College, Oxford.[citation needed]

In 1924, he was appointed as associate professor of physics at the University of Sydney. Bailey was subsequently promoted to Professor of Experimental Physics (1936–52) and Research Professor (1953–60).[citation needed]

Bailey married Joyce Hewitt in 1934. Their older son, John Bailey, also became a physicist.[citation needed]

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ "Background of the Medal". Royal Society of New Zealand. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  2. ^ "Recipients". Royal Society of New Zealand. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  3. ^ Home, R. W. "Victor Albert Bailey (1895–1964)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  4. ^ "Victor Albert Bailey 1895-1964 | Australian Academy of Science". www.science.org.au.
  • 'Bailey, Victor Albert - Ms 32', in Listing of Adolph Basser Library holdings, Australian Academy of Science, 1994, [1]
  • 'Bailey, Victor Albert', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, [2]
  • J. L. Hopper, "Opportunities and Handicaps of Antipodean Scientists: A. J. Nicholson and V. A. Bailey on the Balance of Animal Populations," Historical Records of Australian Science 7(2), pp. 179 – 188, 1987. [3] [4]
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