Residence New Zealand, Poland Fields Physics | Name Brian Wybourne Academic advisors Alan Runciman | |
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Born 5 March 1935
Morrinsville, New Zealand ( 1935-03-05 ) Institutions University of Canterbury
Nicholas Copernicus University Thesis An analysis of the solid state spectra of trivalent rare-earth ions (1960) Died November 26, 2003, Torun, Poland Notable awards Hector Memorial Medal (1970) Books Classical Groups for Physicists Institution University of Canterbury, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun | ||
Alma mater University of Canterbury | ||
Brian Garner Wybourne (5 March 1935 – 26 November 2003) was a New Zealand physicist known for his work on the energy levels of rare-earth ions.
Born in Morrinsville in 1935, Wybourne attended Canterbury University College, graduating with an MSc with second-class honours in 1958 and a PhD in 1960.
After post-doctoral research positions at Johns Hopkins University and Argonne National Laboratory in the United States, Wybourne returned to the University of Canterbury in 1966 to take up a professorship in physics. He served as the head of the physics department from December 1982 to November 1989. In 1991 he was a visiting professor at the Nicholas Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, and decided to remain there permanently.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1970, and the same year he won the society's Hector Medal, the highest award in New Zealand science at that time.