David Forbes Martyn

{{short description|Australian scientist}} {{redirect|David Martyn|a similar but different name|David Martin (disambiguation){{!}}David Martin}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2011}} {{Infobox scientist | name = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1906|06|27}} | birth_place = Cambuslang, Scotland | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1970|03|05|1906|06|27}} | death_place = Camden, New South Wales | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = | workplaces = Imperial College London | alma_mater = | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal (1947) Fellow of the Royal Society (1950)<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Massey | first1 = H. S. W. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1971.0019 | doi-access = free| title = David Forbes Martyn 1906-1970 | journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 17 | pages = 497–510| year = 1971 | s2cid = 73025640 }}</ref> The Chree Medal and Prize (1955) | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = | spouse = | children = }} '''David Forbes Martyn''' FAA FRS (27 June 1906 – 5 March 1970) was a Scottish-born Australian physicist and radiographer.<ref name="frs"/><ref name=AAS>[http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/aasmemoirs/martyn.htm Australian Academy of Science Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829055541/http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/aasmemoirs/martyn.htm |date=29 August 2007 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=48 The International Space Hall of Fame] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304105136/http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=48 |date=4 March 2016 }}</ref><ref name=ADB>R. W. Home, "[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/martyn-david-forbes-11076 Martyn, David Forbes (1906–1970)] ", ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. First published in ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 15, (MUP), 2000.</ref>

==Education== Martyn was educated at Plymouth College and Allan Glen's School, a school in Glasgow noted for its commitment to the teaching of science.<ref name=AAS/> In 1923, he entered the Royal College of Science at Imperial College London.<ref name=AAS/> Martyn was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1926; a PhD in 1929; and a Doctor of Science degree in 1936.<ref name=AAS/>

==Career== Martyn moved to Australia in 1927 to take up one of the first posts in radio research there. He contributed to the development of coastal and air defence RADAR for Australia during World War II. He was awarded the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal of the Australian National Research Council in 1947 for his discovery of atmospheric tides,<ref>[http://www.science.org.au/awards/awards/lyle.html Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101128133557/http://science.org.au/awards/awards/lyle.html |date=28 November 2010 }}, Australian National Research Council, retrieved 2010-06-06.</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Tides found in atmosphere |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=X30QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wZMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3035,1211515&dq=lyle-medal&hl=en |journal=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=9 September 1947 |access-date=20 September 2016 |archive-date=26 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426205538/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=X30QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wZMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3035,1211515&dq=lyle-medal&hl=en |url-status=live }}</ref> and received the T. K. Sidey Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand in the same year, an award set up for outstanding scientific research.<ref>{{cite web |title=Background of the Medal |url=http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/awards/sidey-medal/background/ |publisher=Royal Society of New Zealand |accessdate=7 August 2015 |archive-date=19 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919031437/http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/awards/sidey-medal/background/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Recipients |url=http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/awards/sidey-medal/recipients/ |publisher=Royal Society of New Zealand |accessdate=7 August 2015 |archive-date=9 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170409021241/http://royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/awards/sidey-medal/recipients/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He was elected FRS of London in 1950.<ref name="frs"/>

Australia did not have a learned society for the whole of the Commonwealth of Australia equivalent to the (British) Royal Society - each of the states had its own. (For example, the Royal Society of New South Wales.) Martyn was one of the then 12 Fellows of the Royal Society resident in Australia, and it was largely through his patient negotiation that the various scientific bodies in Australia agreed that 11 of these 12 Fellows were independent enough to form a credible Australian Academy of Science (AAS), which they did in 1954. As well as being a Foundation Fellow of the AAS, he was elected its ''Secretary for Physical Sciences'' for 1954-5 and its president for 1969 until his death in 1970. He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1980.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28242225/el_paso_times/|title=Space Hall of Fame Honors Four|newspaper=El Paso Times|location=El Paso, Texas|date=5 October 1980|last1=McClellan|first1=Doug|page=1B|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=12 February 2019|access-date=10 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190212013130/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28242225/el_paso_times/|url-status=live}}</ref>

His tours, lectures, diplomacy and encouragement were strongly influential in establishing an effectively communicating Australian scientific community. His main interests were radiographic studies of the upper atmosphere and the sun, though his main contributions were theoretical. In 1959, Martyn delivered the first four of the annual series of ABC lectures (subsequently named the Boyer Lectures) on "Society in the Space Age".<ref name=AAS/>

==Personal== Martyn was born in Cambuslang, Scotland, the son of Harry Somerville Martyn, ophthalmic surgeon and Elizabeth Craig Allan, née Thom.<ref name=ADB/> He was a keen trout fisherman, which partly explains his growing interests in environmental matters.<ref name=AAS/> He married Margot Adams, from Sydney in 1944. They had no children.<ref name=AAS/> He died in Camden, New South Wales on 5 March 1970.<ref name=ADB/>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martyn, David Forbes}} Category:1906 births Category:1970 deaths Category:Alumni of Imperial College London Category:Alumni of University of London Worldwide Category:Alumni of the University of London Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:People educated at Plymouth College Category:People educated at Allan Glen's School Category:People from Cambuslang Category:Scottish scientists Category:Presidents of the Australian Academy of Science Category:British emigrants to Australia