Part 2 in process - Alpha Institute for Advanced Studies (AIAS)

turned out to be a very long walk, until the green central area of the College suddenly appeared
through a gap in a grey wall. He had just been appointed a lecturer without competition after
being appointed a lecturer without competition at Salford. He was and is a capable
mathematician, but a difficult character. He may have mellowed up a bit by now. He told me he
was afraid of growing old in Trinity College, which is precisely what happened. Trinity College
was quite interesting, having been founded by my ancestral cousin Elizabeth 1 st ., but I had to get
back to DIAS. My talks seemed to go well.
In the hotel there was a small book which contained photographs of the
people executed in the 1916 Easter Rising, these included Patrick Pearse, James Connolly,
Joseph Plunkett and thirteen others. Being a Welsh speaker I was sympathetic to the Irish
Republic so innocently took a photograph back with me to the EDCL of some of those executed.
I had at last been given a half part of a very small office with no windows so I taped the
photograph on the wall above my desk. I was verbally worked over, black and tan style, by
Mansel Davies but kept the photograph there. This was the thanks that I got for deputizing for
him. He had only a short while to go until he retired in 1978 and then the working over began in
earnest. It took them five years to finally get rid of me in 1983, they lost the EDCL in about
1988, and they have vanished into total obscurity. The University of Wales was never their
concern. OO29 was submitted on 1 st Sept. 1976 with G. Wegdam and G. J. Evans. Wegdam was
on leave from the University of Amsterdam. This is one of my favourite papers because Gareth
Evans had obtained a first class and very original, high quality spectrum which revealed the
individual rotational lines of hydrogen bromide dissolved in the liquid state in sulphur
hexafluoride solvent. This was interpreted with a memory function theory and a theory due to
Frenkel and Wegdam. Daan Frenkel later became an F. R. S. at Cambridge. OO34 was
submitted on 8 th Sept. 1976 on the memory function theory applied to Rayleigh scattering and
some results from computer simulation. This method was greatly extended in the Delta project,
whose challenge has been ducked for many years. So that era of the late seventies and early
eighties was a high point of civilization.
I was worked over once again by Mansel Davies for snatching a few hours
of sleep in Room 262. This was a low point in hypocrisy in contrast to the high point in
civilization. I had been asked to supervise Gareth Evans after all, but this was forgotten. I was a
danger to the insurance policy of the EDCL. One day I saw him walk into my office, place a
note on my desk, and walk away. It was a scribbled note stating that if I did not vacate Room
262 he would do nothing more for me. In fact he had never done anything for me. I did not tell
anyone about this disgusting note, but that was effectively the end of communication with him. I
spent about three weeks at my parents’ house and fortunately managed to rent a house in Tal y
Bont from Martin Beavers who was scheduled to go to Australia for a year and moved in there
as soon as I could, in the autumn of 1976. The method of placing notes on my desk was used
extensively by Jeremy Jones from 1978 to 1983, each telling me to leave, for Oxford, or
anywhere. Jones told me that Purnell would cut his head off if I stayed, a loonie bin indeed.
There is nothing that concentrates the mind so sharply as repeated threats of career destruction.
Later at Trinity College, Scaife whispered in my ear: “This is a nut house, you know”. This was
on my first official visit to Trinity College. At the time Coffey was in the habit of screaming
down the corridor: “Vij!,Vij!” This was not a vegetable but his colleague Jagdish Vij. Echoes of