Vale - Ian James Polmear, AO 1928 to 2025

Source: John Griffiths

Credit: Monash University Archives IN213

There are at least two excellent tributes to Ian Polmear; one, written well before his death (1), and familiar to readers of this Journal, and the other published recently on the Monash University website (2). Here, I add some memories not covered in detail in those reports.

The Monash Department of Materials Engineering was established in 1970, just as the Melbourne University Metallurgy Department was under threat of closure (which finally happened in 1982). Ian has noted that “establishing a new Department in an existing Faculty was not without its problems” (3) but the Department thrived. Ian truly had an open-door style and every Friday, after work, staff gathered in his office to “solve the problems of the world”. As Brian Cherry remarked, Ian believed that all his ugly ducklings were, in fact, swans and the result was a harmonious and hardworking staff. An early initiative, dating from 1973, was a collaboration with the Physics Department through Professor Bill Rachinger. Lecture courses were shared between Physics and the Department. BSc students could study for a Materials Science Major and BE students could get credit for Science courses. The development of the Materials Science Major was a most successful collaboration across Faculty boundaries, enabling a Materials Science course covering all areas of the discipline not, at that time available in any other Australian university. With the advent of the double degree programs across Monash in 1978, the BSc/BE in Materials was already a going concern.

Undergraduate numbers were always low, but by about 1980, research student numbers were the highest in the Faculty, largely because of success with the ARC and other grant-giving bodies. Ian’s own research on alloy effects in aluminium does not need elaboration here: his earliest publications were with HK Hardy, a result of a two-year secondment from the then Aeronautical Research Laboratories to the Fulmer Research Institute in England. Being Head of Department at Monash restricted Ian’s research somewhat. However, after he retired in 1986, he took up part-time consultancy positions, first at the Comalco laboratories in Thomastown, and then at the CSIRO Division of Materials Science at Clayton. From 1987 to 2009 he and co-authors wrote some 70 papers, two patents were granted, and he produced a revised version of his highly successful book, Light Alloys (4). This book was again published in a revised edition, in collaboration with three colleagues, in 2017 (5). It is a fitting tribute to Ian that Materials Australia should have instituted the Ian Polmear Early Career Research Award.

Continuing the theme of Ian’s collaborative and outgoing character, it is worth recording his work on committees. It was astonishing. As noted in (2) he was, at various times, on 29 University committees, he was on some 12 National councils/ committees and, relevant to this present publication, he was on early Australian Institute of Metals committees in the 1960s (6). With this administration load it is remarkable that he had so much time for friends and extra-curricular activities: in part this testifies to great self-discipline and in part to skilful delegation. I am not alone in having left his office convinced that I had really wanted to do such-and-such a task all along.

No tribute to Ian would be complete without mentioning his international achievements in Athletics, besides better than average skills in tennis, squash, and golf. Cricket matches against the BHP Laboratories were scored by the Namdarb System – a nod to the Don.

I am sad to have to say Goodbye to Ian, but am privileged to have known him.

Acknowledgments:

I have had useful conversations with my fellow pioneers (Ian’s term), Brendon Parker, Zbigniew Stachurski and Peter Thomson, and from Physics, Trevor Finlayson.

(1) Materials Australia Magazine: 2023 vol. 56(3) p. 10

(2) https://www.monash.edu/vale/home/articles/vale-emeritus-professorian-polmear-ao2

(3) I J Polmear: family memoirs

(4) I J Polmear: Light Alloys 2nd ed 1988 and 3rd ed 1995 pub: Edward Arnold

(5) Ian Polmear, David StJohn, Jian-Feng,Nie, Ma Qian: Light Alloys 5th ed pub: Butterworth-Heinemann 2017

(6) R C Gifkins: AIM-IMMA 50 years Records and Recollections. pub: Institute of Metals and Materials 1996