Historical Notes on the David Elder Lectures
by David Tedford and Gian-Luca Oppo
The David Elder Lecture originated in 1904 as a result of an endowment of 5,000 pounds - a lot of money in those days - made by Mrs. Isabella Elder (nee Ure), Doctor of Laws, to the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, later to become part of the University of Strathclyde. The scope of the endowment is the maintenance of "Lectures of Descriptive Astronomy" (to be known as the David Elder Lectures) in memory of David Elder, the Father of her late husband, John Elder.
Both John and his father David were outstanding Glasgow engineers. Of John it has been said: "Perhaps no greater loss ever befell the leading industry of the Clyde than the premature death of John Elder in 1869"; and Mr. John Napier, in a paper read before the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Glasgow in 1866, referred to John's distinguished father, David, in the following terms: "The history of so remarkable a man as David Elder must be interesting to many, on account of his connection with works which have made Glasgow and the Clyde notable, and given to his employer (Robert Napier) a fame which is known over the whole engineering world". He goes on: "David Elder was born in Little Seggie, near Kinross in 1785. From his earliest years, he evinced a genius for mathematical studies, and continued to master, without assistance, Simson's Euclid and a separate work on Algebra, translated from the French, which he walked 18 miles to procure. He studied the principles of mechanics and hydraulics by watching the workings of old water-wheels in the surrounding mills. In 1817, he came to Glasgow to practice as a mechanical engineer and millwright. His energy and ingenuity speedily procured his advancement, and he achieved considerable fame as an inventor and design engineer with Robert Napier's famous engineering work in Glasgow".
In fact, David Elder was, and is, regarded as the father of marine engineering on the Clyde, and if you are interested, you can find much more fascinating information in the volumes entitled Memories and Portraits of 100 Glasgow Men.
For more information about the remarkable life of Isabella Elder and her contributions to Higher Education in Glasgow, see her excellent biography "The Lady of Claremont House: Isabella Elder, pioneer and philantropist" by Joan McAlpine, Argyll Publishing, Glendaruel, 1997 (ISBN 1 874640 97 1).
The first series of David Elder Lectures was given in 1905/06 at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, one of the forerunners of the present University of Strathclyde. A list of the distinguished lecturers throughout the present century is, unfortunately, not available.
Since the early seventies, the David Elder Lecture has been organised by the Department of Physics of the University of Strathclyde. David Elder Lectures have been organised more or less erratically in time depending on the fluctuations of the endowment fund due to oscillations in the interest rates. Recent speakers include
Previous David Elder Lectures
The 2009 David Elder Lecture
Monday 18 May 2009.
By Professor Chris Collins, Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool
John Moores University
Cosmology could never be accused of being a modest subject, after all its
primary aim is nothing less than to understand the entire universe! With
the development of modern telescopes (and the occasional “good idea” along the way), progress in our understanding of the universe over the last
century has been nothing short of remarkable. However, many important
questions still remain unanswered. In his lecture, Chris Collins will
explore the landmark discoveries of the subject and discuss such intriguing
questions as what is the ultimate fate of the universe, what is it made of
exactly and how did galaxies and stars form? Along the way we will learn
about the big bang, dark energy and the cosmic background radiation; we
will also find out why cosmology is more exciting today than it has ever
been and why both the sport of boxing and winged beetles are of no help to
cosmologists whatsoever!
The 2008 David Elder Lecture:
14 May 2008.
By Prof Monica Grady, The Open University, Milton Keynes
Every year, between 40,000 and 60,000 tonnes of meteorites fall on the Earth’s surface – a huge amount of material. Fortunately, though, it very rarely arrives all in one large lump. Most of this extraterrestrial material comes as dust. Sometimes, though, there are consequences of these uninvited guests dropping in. In her lecture, Monica Grady will explore just why the dinosaurs became extinct, and why it is important to keep penguin feathers out of Antarctic ice. Along the way, she will also consider some of the things that we can learn from meteorites, these visitors from space whose arrival cannot be predicted.
The 2007 David Elder Lecture:
The Origin and Future of the Universe
The 2007 David Elder lecture will be given by Prof Gerry Gilmore, FInstP, ScD, Professor of Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge on 7 March 2007.
Cosmologists can now say with some confidence that our Universe consists for 5 percent of matter like that of which we are made, 25 percent some other, still unknown, form of transparent matter, and 70 percent of a still mysterious form of dark energy, which is controlling the fate of the Universe. Each step in our growing knowledge corresponds to a developing appreciation of the (lack of) significance of our direct 'common sense' view of nature.
Millennia of study by the greatest minds led, by the 16th century, to a Universe with Man at its head and its centre, with all Creation subject to Mankind’s desires – an approach still often evident in global planning. Precision large-scale science then arose, rapidly leading to Copernicus and Newton, and our eventual realisation that observation and analysis required a quite different description of reality. The 'Copernican principle', which is essentially that any explanation for an observation or event which requires a special role for Man or a deity is wrong, has since been applied with great effect, leading to the startling practical and conceptual successes of modern science, and its technological offspring. Astrophysics has extended this Copernican discovery concept so far that we know, as noted above, that everything that we see in the Universe, and the very type of matter of which we are made, is an almost insignificant perturbation on a deeper and very different reality.
Yet we are able to describe much of the past history of the Universe, from its origin as an imperfect fluctuation in nothing, to the present when gravity has lost control of the fate of the Universe, to consider why the laws of physics allow a Universe which supports life, and to consider possible far futures.
The 2006 David Elder Lecture:
The Huygens Probe at Titan
The 2006 David Elder lecture will be given by Professor John Zarnecki of the Open University on Wednesday the 3rd of May 2006.
After an interplanetary journey of more than seven years, the European Space Agency's probe Huygens landed on the surface of Saturn's largest moon Titan, having been released from NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Christmas Day 2004. Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury, is the only planetary satellite in the entire Solar System to possess a significant atmosphere. Most interestingly, it appears that Titan's atmosphere is the site of a whole range of chemical reactions that produce increasingly complex hydrocarbon molecules as might have occurred in Earth's early atmosphere over 4 billion years ago. The journey of the Huygens probe will be described as well as its final dramatic plunge to the surface. Early results will be presented with emphasis on the British contribution.
The 2005 David Elder Lecture
The 2005 David Elder lecture entitled The Quest for Extrasolar Planets was held on 13 June by Keith Horne of the University of St Andrews.
Some pictures from the 2005 lecture:
Keith Horne giving his lecture
David Birch making some introductory remarks
The Principal Andrew Hammet introducing the speaker Keith Horne
Some earlier lectures
- In 2004 Drs. Bonnie J. Dunbar, Neal Pellis, and Chuck Lloyd ("NASA: Space Exploration and Research")
- Heather Reid in 2000 ("Weather Forecasts in the 21st Century").
- Prof. Carl Murray in 1997 ("Chaotic Clockwork: Order and Disorder in the Solar System"), and
- Prof. Steven Miller in 1995 ("The Great Crash of 1994: Comet Shoemaker-Levy-9's Fatal Encounter with Jupiter"),
- Prof. Heather Cooper in 1994 ("ET -- Please Phone Earth"),
