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Early Days of the Department of Materials Engineering by Ian Polmear

Monash University commenced in 1961 with 363 students enrolled in five faculties including Engineering. At this time the inaugural Dean, the late Professor Kenneth Hunt, had in mind introducing a general undergraduate course in engineering science rather in the Oxbridge style in England. However, with the appointment of the first four professors, it was decided to establish separate Departments of Chemical, Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, and to develop courses in these traditional disciplines. Service courses in metallurgy/materials were needed which were then the responsibility of the Department of Civil Engineering and metallurgical engineers the late Mr Reg McPherson (1963) and Dr Peter Thomson (1965) were recruited from The University of Melbourne to initiate teaching and research in this area. Reg, who also designed the first materials teaching laboratories in Building 5 (now 37), had interests both in metals and ceramics whereas Peter’s field was metal working. In 1967, the Faculty decided that activities in metallurgy/materials at Monash should be expanded and a Chair of Materials Science was established to which another metallurgical engineer, Dr Ian Polmear, was appointed from the former Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne. His personal research was in the field of light alloys. Late in 1968 he, in turn, appointed Dr Brian Cherry from W.R. Grace & Co. in England to develop teaching and research in polymers. Brian was then interested in adhesives and later he also initiated teaching and research relating to the corrosion and protection of materials.

At that time there were five university departments of metallurgy in Australia (Melbourne, Queensland, New South Wales, which then included Wollongong as a college, and Newcastle). Numerous diploma courses in metallurgy were also available at colleges of advanced education and schools of mines. All tended to cover the primary and secondary areas of metals from ore dressing to physical metallurgy. Small ceramics and textile groups operated at the UNSW but there was no multi-disciplinary materials department in Australia..

Shortly after his appointment, Ian Polmear visited England and the United States to study developments there, particularly in the emerging field of materials science. Dialogue was also commenced with local employers in an attempt to assess their future needs for metallurgy/materials graduates.
Following these reviews, the small materials group at Monash decided to focus its efforts on the secondary aspects of metals, ceramics and polymers, and to treat these materials with particular regard to their engineering context. It was also decided to seek an amicable separation from Civil Engineering so that a Department of Materials Engineering could be formed in January 1970.
At that time the staff comprised four academics, two temporary research fellows including Dr Brendon Parker who joined the  lecturing staff shortly afterwards, the late Bruce Young as Laboratory Manager, two technicians and Miss Peggy O’Leary as Secretary. Postgraduates numbered four. Approval was obtained to introduce a new undergraduate degree course in materials engineering at second year level in 1971. Much of 1970 was therefore spent developing the syllabus for the course, publicizing it where possible, and obtaining provisional recognition of the proposed BE degree as a professional qualification by The Institution of Engineers, Australia. What remained unknown was the likely appeal of this new course to potential students and  it was with considerable  relief that that a comfortable number of 16 enrolled in 1971.
Staff recruitment continued during the 1970s, most of whom either came from overseas or were working there. Drs Zbigniew Stachurski (polymers) and John Griffiths  (metallurgy, fracture mechanics) were appointed from Canada and England, respectively late in 1971, followed by Drs Paul Rossiter (electrical materials) and Hugh Brown (polymers) from England, and metallurgist Dr Richard Jago  from Denmark in 1972/3. Later, Dr Arthur Crosby from Scotland and new PhD graduate Mary Gani, both with interests in ceramics, joined the Department. Technical and secretarial staff numbers were also increased and included the appointment of Julie Fraser as photographer who is still with the Department.
Another early challenge was persuading other departments to relinquish space for these new activities in materials. For example, the departmental workshop was moved four times during the 1970s. However, the space problem was much relieved with the construction of Building 6 (now 36) in 1972/3, one floor of which was allocated to Materials Engineering. This provided the opportunity to group staff together and to design purpose-built laboratories. It also provided the Department with a much needed visible presence in the Faculty. Major items of equipment were acquired including transmission and scanning electron microscopes, x-ray diffraction units, testing machines and facilities for materials processing.
By the end of the first decade, some 90 students had qualified for the BE degree in Materials Engineering and 40 postgraduates had completed masters or PhD degrees by research. The Department continued to provide materials service courses within the Faculty of Engineering and contributed to the teaching of materials science subjects that were introduced in the Faculty of Science. Although the BE course proved to be attractive both to female students, and  to students from several Asian countries, enrolments overall remained relatively small, averaging 17 per annum. On the other hand, postgraduate numbers rose steadily so that, by 1980, the Department had the largest research group in the Faculty.

Ian Polmear