a story lives forever
Register
Sign in
Form submission failed!

Stay signed in

Recover your password?
Register
Form submission failed!

Web of Stories Ltd would like to keep you informed about our products and services.

Please tick here if you would like us to keep you informed about our products and services.

I have read and accepted the Terms & Conditions.

Please note: Your email and any private information provided at registration will not be passed on to other individuals or organisations without your specific approval.

Video URL

You must be registered to use this feature. Sign in or register.

NEXT STORY

The Laboratory of Lubricants and Bearings

RELATED STORIES

The old degree structure at Melbourne University
Norman Greenwood Scientist
Comments (0) Please sign in or register to add comments

I want to emphasise perhaps a little bit about the degree structure at Melbourne University because it's quite different from what it now is and what is, I think... Well, it's a little bit like the Scotch system, but not like the one in England. The system was that you took four subjects in the first year, three subjects in the second year and two subjects in final year, but the two subjects could be A and B parts of the same subject. So you could do double chemistry or chemistry and metallurgy, chemistry and geology, and so forth. That was the technical part, but also in Melbourne in those days you had to do two years of French and two years of German. These were translation exercises; if you'd done Pass Sixth, as I had in French, you were excused the first year. If you'd done Honours Sixth, which I hadn't done, you had to do the second year of French, and in German... I had no German – I'd done Latin at school as a second foreign language – then you had to do that from scratch. So that was added on to the course.

Norman Greenwood (1925-2012) was born in Australia and graduated from Melbourne University before going to Cambridge. His wide-ranging research in inorganic and structural chemistry made major advances in the chemistry of boron hydrides and other main-group element compounds. He also pioneered the application of Mössbauer spectroscopy to problems in chemistry. He was a prolific writer and inspirational lecturer on chemical and educational themes, and held numerous visiting professorships throughout the world.

Listeners: Brian Johnson

Professor Brian FG Johnson FRS, FRSE, FRS Chem, FAcad Eu, FAS. Professor of Inorganic Chemistry University of Edinburgh 1991-1995, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry University of Cambridge 1995-2005, Master Fitzwilliam College Cambridge 1999-2005. Research interests include studies of transition metal carbonyls, organometallic chemistry, nano- particles and homogeneous catalysis. Professor Johnson is the author of over 1000 research articles and papers.

Tags: University of Melboune, Scotland, UK

Duration: 1 minute, 26 seconds

Date story recorded: May 2011

Date story went live: 25 November 2011