Thomas Laby

Thomas Howell Laby FRS (3 May 1880 – 21 June 1946), was an Australian physicist and chemist, Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of Melbourne 1915–1942. Along with G. W. C. Kaye, he was one of the founding editors of the reference book Tables of Physical and Chemical Constants and Some Mathematical Functions, usually known simply as "Kaye and Laby".

Born in Creswick, Victoria, Australia, Laby moved with his family to New South Wales around 1883. Laby's father, Thomas James Laby, a flour-miller, died in 1888. After some schooling at country schools and private study, Laby joined the Taxation Department in 1898 but soon gained a position in the chemical laboratory of the Department of Agriculture.

In 1901 Laby obtained a position of junior demonstrator in chemistry at the University of Sydney. He took evening classes at the University and soon had two papers published by the Royal Society of New South Wales: 'The separation of iron from nickel and cobalt' in 1903 and 'Preliminary observations on radio-activity and the occurrence of radium in Australian minerals' with Sir Douglas Mawson in 1904.

In 1905 Laby went to England to study under Sir J. J. Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. There he received a Bachelor of Arts degree by theses on the ionization produced by alpha-particles and on the supersaturation and nuclear condensation of organic vapours. He also met Ernest Rutherford there, who became a friend.

Laby was appointed to the new chair of physics at Victoria University College in Wellington, New Zealand in 1909 and completed work with G. W. C. Kaye resulting in publication of Tables of physical and chemical constants with some mathematical functions (London, 1911); the title has had sixteen editions as of 2007. Laby was president of section A of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science in Melbourne, 1912.

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