astronomy

Thomas Edwin Nevin

Thomas Edwin Nevin is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thomas Edwin Nevin rather than just read about it. In short: Thomas Edwin Nevin (4 October 1906 in Bristol, Somerset – 16 July 1986 in Dublin) was an Irish physicist and academic who had a distinguished career in the field of molecular spectroscopy. He was Professor of Experimental Physics and Dean of the Faculty of Science in University College Dublin from 1963 to 1979.

Key takeaways

Thomas Edwin Nevin belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thomas Edwin Nevin to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thomas Edwin Nevin from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Thomas Edwin Nevin (4 October 1906 in Bristol, Somerset – 16 July 1986 in Dublin) was an Irish physicist and academic who had a distinguished career in the field of molecular spectroscopy. He was Professor of Experimental Physics and Dean of the Faculty of Science in University College Dublin from 1963 to 1979.

Personal life Thomas E. Nevin was born in Bristol, Somerset on 4 October 1906. He was the eldest of seven children born to Thomas Nevin of Cashel, County Tipperary, and Alice Nevin (née Higginson) of Herefordshire. Áine Ní Chnáimhín (1908–2001) who wrote a biography of Pádraic Ó Conaire was Nevin's sister; historian and trade unionist Donal Nevin was his brother. In January 1936 he married Monica T. M. Morrissey, a UCD graduate in Celtic studies who went on to serve on the Council of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and did research on antiquarian matters for Irish History Online. The couple had four daughters together.

Education and career Born in 1906 in Bristol, England, the oldest of seven children of an Irish father and English mother, the family soon settled in Ireland where he spent his youth. From 1919 to 1924 he attended the CBS Sexton Street secondary school in Limerick City. The school had no science program, but Nevin was interested in physics and managed to learn the subject pretty thoroughly on his own. In 1924 he got a scholarship to University College Dublin, where he excelled in mathematics and physics, winning first-class honours every year, and earning an honours B.Sc. in Experimental Physics and Mathematics in 1927. He got his M.Sc. under J.J. Nolan in 1928 for a treatise on "The Effect of Water Vapour on the Diffusion Coefficients and Mobilities of Ions in the Air". That year he was also awarded an 1851 Research Fellowship, which enabled him to study spectroscopy at Imperial College, London (1929–1931). In 1931, he returned to Dublin to continue his research and was appointed an assistant in the department of experimental physics. In 1940, he was awarded a D.Sc. degree at National University of Ireland for previously published work, and in 1942, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at Queen's University Belfast. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s he continued his research in molecular spectroscopy, often working with research groups in fundamental particle and cosmic ray physics. He was a capable administrator at UCD, serving on the university's finance and buildings committees, as well as the academic council and governing body, and he initiated many improvements to the physics department. When J. J. Nolan died in 1952, Nevin succeeded him as Professor of Experimental Physics, a position he held until his retirement in 1979. Nevin was a strong advocate for expansion of the UCD campus, which for half a century was based at Earlsfort Terrace in the city. As a key member of UCD's academic council and a member of its buildings committee (1957–76), he was instrumental in moving the science faculty to the new Belfield campus in the southern suburbs in 1964. He was a key figure in the formation of the Irish branch of Institute of Physics. At the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies he was a member of the governing boards of the school of theoretical physics (1943-1961) and the school of cosmic physics (1948-1956). On 16 March 1942 he was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy and served on its council from 1944 to 1968.

Thomas E. Nevin Medal The Thomas E. Nevin Medal and Prize is given annually, in honour of Nevin, to the graduate who passes with first-class honours and is placed first in the BSc (Honours) degree examination in Physics, at the University College Dublin..

Papers 1985 Jeremiah Hogan and University College Dublin by Thomas E. Nevin, in Studies, An Irish Quarterly Review published by Irish Province of the Society of Jesus, Vol 74, No 295, pp. 325–335 1931 The spectrum of barium fluoride in the extreme red and near infra-red by Thomas E Nevin, Proceedings of the Physical Society, Vol 43, No 5. 1930 The Effect of Water Vapour on the Diffusion Coefficients and Mobilities of Ions in the Air by J. J. Nolan and T. E. Nevin, Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, 127, 155–174.

References

External links "Physicists of Ireland, Passion and Precision", by Mark McCartney (Editor), Andrew Whitaker (Editor), 1 edition (15 September 2003) CRC Press. ISBN 0750308664

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thomas Edwin Nevin

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thomas Edwin Nevin claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thomas Edwin Nevin before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thomas Edwin Nevin ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thomas Edwin Nevin

In research: Thomas Edwin Nevin appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thomas Edwin Nevin in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thomas Edwin Nevin is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1906 births, 1986 deaths, 20th-century Irish physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thomas Edwin Nevin outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Thomas Edwin Nevin in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thomas Edwin Nevin means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thomas Edwin Nevin out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thomas Edwin Nevin in simple terms?

Why does Thomas Edwin Nevin matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thomas Edwin Nevin?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thomas Edwin Nevin.