John Henry Carver

John Henry Carver was born in Homebush, New SouthWales, on 5 September 1926, the sixth in a line of John Carvers.

His work at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge (1949-53) and at the ANU was in the field of experimental nuclear physics, particularly nuclear photodisintegration.  

John Henry Carver became Elder Professor and Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Adelaide in 1961, having earlier obtained his Bachelor and Masters degrees in Science at the University of Sydney and doctorate at Cambridge and worked as a Research Fellow/Fellow/Senior Fellow at the Australian National University from 1953 to 1961. 

After his appointment to Adelaide his principal research interests were in rocket experiments (using the government facilities at Woomera) and upper atmosphere and space research, including photoabsorption in molecular oxygen and the evolution of the earth's atmosphere more generally.

In his seventeen years at the University of Adelaide, Carver enhanced the strength of an already strong department and established strong research groups in atmospheric physics and laboratorybased molecular physics. In so doing, he became a pioneer of space physics in Australia, and was to be instrumental in Australia becoming the fourth country to launch its own satellite from within its own borders. By the time he left Adelaide, he had established an international reputation in both the science and the politics of space research.

In 1978 Carver was appointed Director of the Research School of Physical Sciences at the ANU where he continued the Adelaide U.V. work and initiated a Space Astronomy project in collaboration with the Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring observatories.

Carver retired from the Directorship in 1992. Twice reappointed to the position, he served a record term of fifteen years, a testament to both his success as Director and the confidence his staff had in him.

When his appointment came to an end, it was still not quite time for him to end his association with the ANU. The University was thinking its way through new structures, including the future role of the Academic Boards of its two components, the Institute of Advanced Studies and the undergraduate school, known as The Faculties. From 1992 to 1994, Carver was the University’s Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies. Then, finally, he was able to return to his physics. As an Emeritus Professor in his old School, he continued almost until the time of his death to work on atmospheric modelling, the subject that had fascinated him for some years and to which he had devoted whatever hours he could spare from the many demanding responsibilities he had carried for so many years.