P. R. Wallace
Encyclopedia
P. R. Wallace (April 19, 1915 – March 20, 2006) was a Canadian theoretical physicist and long-time professor at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...

 and Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India). He had a distinguished career as educator, researcher, and activist in science and society, but he is increasingly well known for his pioneering paper in 1947 on the band structure of graphite
Graphite
The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...

, and particularly graphene
Graphene
Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite and the suffix -ene by Hanns-Peter Boehm, who described single-layer...

, the subject of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Early and wartime years

Born in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 in 1915, Wallace entered the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

 in 1933, achieving a B.A. in mathematics in 1937, an M.A. in 1938, and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics
Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...

 in 1940 under Leopold Infeld
Leopold Infeld
Leopold Infeld was a Polish physicist who worked mainly in Poland and Canada . He was a Rockefeller fellow at Cambridge University and a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences....

 with a thesis on electromagnetism
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...

 in general relativity
General relativity
General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...

.
Advised by L. J. Synge, then head of the Applied Mathematics Department at Toronto, to hold himself ready for war work in Canada, Wallace took a two-year job at the University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....

 and then moved to a lectureship at MIT. In 1943 he was recruited to join the British-Canadian Atomic Energy Project at the National Research Council of Canada's Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 laboratory. From 1943 to 1946 Wallace worked as one of an impressive group of theorists and mathematicians led by Georges Placzek on nuclear reactor fundamentals, including study of the effects on graphite and other materials of intense neutron and ion bombardment. His assignment to visit N. F. Mott in Bristol, England for several months to learn what was known about graphite led Wallace to a lifelong interest in graphite and a career in condensed matter physics, not least his 1947 paper on the band structure of graphite.

From Mathematics to Physics

When the Montreal effort moved to the Chalk River site in 1946, Wallace joined the Mathematics Department at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

 and began to build a group of young theoretical physicists there. The anomaly, at least in North America, of theoretical physicists in the Math department, not in Physics, had historic roots at McGill, dating from Rutherford
Rutherford
- Places :Australia* Rutherford, New South Wales, a suburb of MaitlandCanada* Mount Rutherford, Jasper National Park* Rutherford House, in Edmonton, Alberta* Rutherford Library, University of AlbertaUnited Kingdom...

's time. More generally, Canadian universities followed the British model of separation of mathematics from physics, perhaps deigning to have a small separate department of applied mathematics. Rutherford's strongly expressed views solidified things at McGill for 50 years. But by the early 1960s circumstances had changed; Wallace and his group moved into the Physics Department. He has documented the post-war story of the growth of a tiny number of isolated theoretical physicists in Canada, basically "outsiders," into a viable community of "insiders," not only at McGill.

Research

Initially working in nuclear physics and properties of graphite, in the mid-1950s Wallace turned his attention to the newly discovered positron annihilation in solids and liquids. In 1960 he published what became a standard reference in the field. His later research focused on semiconductors and semimetals, particularly their behaviour under intense magnetic fields, with regular returns to properties of graphite. In addition to summer school proceedings, in 1969 he edited two volumes on superconductivity and in 1973 he co-edited a volume on new developments in semiconductors.

Teaching and mentoring

Wallace was a superb lecturer and mentor of students. His undergraduate course in methods of mathematical physics was inspirational. It allowed many students to see what a disciplined and well-trained mind could accomplish by applying mathematics to physical problems. More than a few careers were encouraged on their paths by Wallace's course. A text based on his notes was finally published in 1973.
Over his career at McGill Wallace supervised over 30 graduate students to M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, more than one third of them Ph.D.s.

Professional activities

Wallace was active in professional affairs, a co-founder of the Canadian Association of Physicists
Canadian Association of Physicists
The Canadian Association of Physicists , or in French Association canadienne des physiciens et physiciennes is a Canadian professional society that focuses on creating awareness amongst Canadians and Canadian legislators of physics issues, sponsoring physics related events, and publishes Physics...

 and founder and first chair of its Theoretical Physics Division, 1957-58. He served as Editor of the Canadian Journal of Physics, 1973–80, and on numerous advisory and planning committees for conferences. At McGill he was Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics, 1966–70, and active in faculty and university affairs.

Retirement

Retiring as Professor Emeritus in Physics in 1982, Wallace soon became Principal of the Science College, Concordia University
Concordia University
Concordia University is a comprehensive Canadian public university located in Montreal, Quebec, one of the two universities in the city where English is the primary language of instruction...

 in Montreal, 1984-1987. In the 1990s he began writing semi-popular books explaining physics to the layperson, "Physics: Imagination and Reality" and "Paradox Lost: Images of the Quantum". He died on March 20, 2006 in Victoria, British Columbia of complications of old age.

Obituaries appear in Physics in Canada and Physics Today
Physics Today
Physics Today, created in 1948, is the membership journal of the American Institute of Physics. It is provided to 130,000 members of twelve physics societies, including the American Physical Society...

.
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