Harry Lambert Welsh

Welsh, Harry Lambert

Harry Lambert Welsh, physicist, educator (b at Aurora, Ont 23 Mar 1910; d at Toronto 23 July 1984). He was educated and spent his career at U of T, except for 1931-33 in Göttingen and 1943-45 in Ottawa as lieutenant-commander of naval operational research. Welsh began his outstanding research in molecular spectroscopy with the discovery of pressure-induced absorption in 1949. His laboratory became a world-recognized centre, with new developments in light scattering and pioneering studies of liquid and solid hydrogen and of molecular complexes. As chairman of the U of T department of physics 1962-68, he played a major role in its development as one of the major science departments in Canada. He published almost 200 scientific papers and received many awards, including the Order of Canada and fellowship in the Royal Society of London. The U of T's annual H.L. Welsh Lectures in Physics, inaugurated on his retirement in 1978, attract international scholars.