Professor Stuart Butler

AboutStuart Butler was born in 1926 in South Australia. It was at Birdwood High School that he began to display great skills in mathematics, science, English and music. Stuart won a scholarship to the University of Adelaide, and his undergraduate record was so brilliant that he was awarded an Australian National University Scholarship to work in theoretical physics at the University of Birmingham.

He went on to become an award winning and world-renowned theoretical physicist. In 1954 he was appointed a Reader in Physics at the University of Sydney. Here Stuart joined a group of young theoretical physicists attracted to Sydney by the then recently appointed Head of the School of Physics, Professor Harry Messel. At the age of 32, Professor Messel was busy attracting the most brilliant minds to Sydney.

Stuart was always concerned with the need for science to explain itself better to the public and was respected by the media for his activities in this area. In the 1950s before Frontiers of Science was launched, Stuart was writing a regular science feature for the Daily Telegraph, in the days when science journalism was virtually unheard of. "When Sputnik went into orbit in 1957, Stuart Butler was hustled into the TCN 9 television studio to explain about orbits, weightlessness and similar mysteries", Bob Raymond reported.

Bob Raymond and Stuart became great friends through lively Sunday luncheons at the Butler's Mosman home where many of the day's science luminaries gathered. "Few came close to matching the unlikely - for a scientist - delight in living and breadth of interests of Stuart Butler." Bob Raymond says in his biography.

In an interview with Hazel De Berg, Stuart mentioned he agreed with research from the American Army that, "Many people will not read a block of 1,000 words but nevertheless... something of importance to be communicated to a large number of servicemen is best done in illustrated form." With this research in mind, Stuart decided to try the comic strip method to communicate scientific ideas to the general public.

It was Stuart who did much of the work finding ideas for each Frontiers strip, advising on the science and answering the odd complaint questioning the accuracy of the strips.

Stuart pursued his interest in the interpretation of science, organising a conference with the Academy of Science and the ABC on science communication to the general public. A dinner was subsequently held for Fellows of the Royal Academy and media leaders to discuss science communication and the media. In 1977, he wrote a book, Uranium on Trial (co-authored by Robert Raymond and C.N. Watson-Munro) to elucidate the complex problems of the use of uranium.

Stuart also wrote a whole series of Summer Science School books (now known as the Professor Harry Messel International Science School) edited with Messel and ranging through such diverse topics as nuclear physics, space research, astronomy, biology, brain mechanisms, solar energy and geology.

Professor Stuart Butler, who died in 1982, played a vital role in communicating to the public the aspirations, the successes, the fears and the failures of science.

“Stuart Thomas Butler 1926-1982” by C.N. Watson-Munro.
https://www.science.org.au/fellowship/fellows/biographical-memoirs/stuart-thomas-butler-1926-1982
Retrieved 9/12/19

Butler, S. T. and De Berg, Hazel. Stuart Thomas Butler interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection [sound recording] 1972. NLA catalogue entryRoleScience Advisor

Collection

Frontiers of Science