Anthony George Klein 1935–2021

Trevor R. Finlayson; Leon Mann; Bruce H. J. McKellar; David G. Satchell

doi:10.1071/HR23028

EDITORIAL (Open Access)

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Anthony George Klein 1935–2021

Trevor R. Finlayson ^A , Leon Mann ^B ^* , Bruce H. J. McKellar ^C and David G. Satchell ^D

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A School of Physics and Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3010, Australia.

^B Melbourne School of Psychological Science, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3010, Australia.

^C School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3010, Australia.

^D Department of Biology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3010, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: leonm@unimelb.edu.au

Historical Records of Australian Science https://doi.org/10.1071/HR23028

Published online: 24 May 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Academy of Science. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Professor Anthony (Tony) George Klein AM, FAA (1935–2021) was an outstanding physicist, university teacher, leader, mentor and science communicator. We recount Tony’s life from his childhood in wartime Romania, his early interest in mathematics, the family’s migration to Australia via Israel in 1953, high school and university education in Melbourne, appointment as a research scientist at the AAEC in Sydney, followed by a distinguished career as an academic, researcher and leader in the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne where he retired as Emeritus Professor. The memoir describes Tony Klein’s personal qualities, the influences and experiences shaping his career, his major research contributions and collaborations in the field of neutron optics and neutron interferometry, his service to scientific and medical organisations and recognition by the university, the Australian Academy of Science and the nation. We evaluate Tony Klein’s contribution to science, knowledge and higher education.

Keywords: Australian Academy of Science, Australian Institute of Physics, Australian Optical Society, Melbourne physics, neutron physics, neutron optics.

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