Professor Austin Keane

Contents

• Chronology
• Biography
• List of Publications
• Higher degree students supervised
• Article from “The University of Wollongong Recorder” [June 1974]
• Austin Keane artwork

Professor Austin Keane Chronology

• 1927 August 19, Born in Sydney to Mr and Mrs PW Keane
• 1939-43 De La Salle College, Marrickville
• 1944 Enters Sydney University
• 1945 Awarded Norman Quirk prize for Essay on Pascal's Theorem
• 1949 Awarded First Class Honours and University Medal; Appointed Lecturer, Sydney Technical College (later UNSW)
• 1951 Awarded MSc, Sydney University; Head, Mathematics and Physics Dept, Wollongong Technical College (University Division)
• 1952 June 20, Married Lorna (nee Hartman)
• 1955 Awarded PhD, Sydney University (first mathematics PhD in Australia)
• 1956 Foundation member, Australian Mathematical Society
• 1958 Study leave at Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, UK
• 1959 With Stan Senior, first book “Complementary Mathematics” published; Appointed consultant, Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC), Lucas Heights
• 1961 Joined AAEC as Principal Research Scientist; His first PhD student's degree conferred (Ivan Rose)
• 1964 Appointed Foundation Professor, Mathematics, Wollongong University College; Head, Division of Physical Science
• 1967 Study leave at Leeds University, UK
• 1968 President, Royal Society of New South Wales
• 1973-74 Study leave at University of Papua New Guinea
• 1975 Appointed first Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Wollongong
• 1977 Study Leave at University of the South Pacific, Fiji
• 1978 Appointed first Emeritus Professor, University of Wollongong, following retirement on medical grounds
• 1979 His 18th PhD student (Peter Cerone) degree conferred
• 1979 March 13 died, survived by his wife Lorna, and children Phillip and Joanne
• 1980 Awarded posthumously the first DSc at the University of Wollongong
• 1983 June 24, Former Arts, Commerce and Science building at University of Wollongong renamed the Austin Keane building.

Professor Austin Keane DSc 1927-1979

(A slightly updated version of an obituary written by Keith Tognetti)

Austin Keane was appointed to the foundation chair in Mathematics at the University of Wollongong (it was the Wollongong University College until 1975) in 1964. He held this position until his retirement in 1978 due to a long and tragic illness.

After showing an early precocity in Mathematics, he obtained Honours in Physics and Mathematics in the Leaving Certificate at the De La Salle School, Marrickville. He commenced studying mathematics at Sydney University in 1944 and the following year won the Norbert Quirk Prize for second year Mathematics as well as the H.S. Russell prize for Astronomy. In 1949(22) he was awarded First Class Honours and a University medal having also won the Barker Prize for proficiency in undergraduate mathematics.

About this stage he contracted tuberculosis but characteristically persisted with his studies, completing his MSc in a sanatorium. This was awarded in 1951 for a thesis "Propagation of waves in a dispersive medium". He left the sanatorium with a collapsed lung.

Records show that Professor of Applied Mathematics Keith Bullen was anxious for him to join the staff at Sydney University but, even in those days, funds had been cut back. He accepted a position with the Sydney Technical College and was posted to Wollongong. There he administered all diploma courses in Physics and Mathematics, carried out an enormous teaching program, started his PhD and met a young lady named Lorna who was to become his wife. In 1955, now a lecturer at the University of NSW he returned to Sydney. There he was made Senior Lecturer and was awarded his PhD titled "Finite Elastic Strain with Geophysical Applications". Apparently this was the first PhD awarded in Mathematics in Australia. There is evidence to suggest that he really supervised his own PhD project. In those days he was acknowledged as the top researcher at UNSW and was the leader of the research program there until he left in 1961. The fact that he activated 6 staff members into producing 14 papers on topics ranging from elasticity theory, chemical reactions, mine ventilation and reactor physics is a testimony to his leadership.

In 1957 he organised 12 members of staff to write a book for first year mathematics "Complementary Mathematics", which was published in 1959 and went through three editions. The co-editor was Stan Senior. This book has been a standard text at UNSW, Newcastle, Wollongong and WA. A more advanced textbook "Mathematical Methods", completed in 1960 , went through three editions. The profits from these books were used to fund two prizes for mathematics students at Wollongong over many years.

In 1959 still aged only 32 he was made a consultant to the Australian Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AAEC) at Lucas Heights). At the same time he was appointed Executive Officer of the Institute of Nuclear Engineering at the University of NSW reporting directly to the Vice Chancellor. In this position he designed and implemented a postgraduate program in Nuclear Engineering and in particular initiated the MEngSci in Nuclear Engineering. Fondly recalled are his stimulating (beautifully prepared) lectures, his organisational adroitness and concern and understanding for his students. He prepared a special book for one of these courses "Advanced topics in Mathematics" which upon revision became published as "Integral Transforms" 1965 and has been used at a variety of centres including the University of Oxford.

In 1958 he spent a year's study leave at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, UK. In those days, no financial assistance was available for travel and travel costs were much higher, compared with base salaries, than they are today. Although he had commenced working in reactor theory prior to this visit, this was the first opportunity for him to work with experts in the area. It was here that he learnt of the work of the Russians on resonance absorption and using the flimsy information then available on the subject he was able to produce some outstanding work in the area of resonance capture of neutrons especially in the heterogeneous lattices of thermal reactor systems. To give some indication of this originality it should be noted that for example he was the first to establish that the Doppler effect varies as the inverse square root of the temperature. His work in this area covered the full range from experimental, Doppler broadened resonance capture functions, neutron slowing down, and the relationship between the heterogeneous and homogeneous problems.

Retuning to Harwell later, to revise a paper he had written there, he was told he did not have the security clearance to access it!

When he returned to Australia he could have conducted a selfish program which would have resulted in a large number of papers being produced under only his name. However, as usual, he chose to share his gifts and through his leadership, and generosity, he built up an Australian Reactor Theory Group which had an international reputation. Unfortunately Australia had no major nuclear program so his abilities were not fully realised in this country. Neither were they appreciated at UNSW where the promise of the chair in Nuclear Engineering was not honoured. So here he was in 1960 with ten graduate students (4 PhD, 1 MEng, 5 MEngSci) with somebody else to reap the benefits of the labours he had put into building up the Institute. He quite rightly considered the promotion to Associate Professorship not adequate so he left to join the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC) at Lucas Heights. From 1961 to 1964 he was Principal Research Scientist in charge of theoretical physics at AAEC. UNSW made the gesture of appointing him as a visiting Professor to continue the supervision of his research students.

In 1964 he accepted the foundation Chair of Mathematics at Wollongong (he was also offered the Chair at Newcastle at about the same time). He continued to live at his home in Caringbah which meant an 80 mile drive each day. But he did come down initially only three days per week. One day was spent with his many graduate students who were staff members at Lucas Heights and the other day would usually be consumed by the endless committee work at Kensington - rarely did he experience the joy of working at home for a day.

He was only the second Professor appointed and, when it was realised that he was able and willing to undertake administration, it started coming his way in increasingly high doses. A brief account of his administrative activities is as follows: acting Warden for a period of about 18 months; elected first Chairman of Board of Studies (equivalent to present Academic Senate) and served in the position for three years; served as chairman on practically every committee existing at the College; Head of the Division of Physical Science which included the Departments of Physics, Geology and Mathematics as well as being Head of the computing facility at the college; the Librarian at that time was seriously ill so he took over his duties; when the Professor of English resigned he became acting Head of the Division of Language and Literature.

As Head of the Division of Physical Science he was very active in structuring both the Physics and Geology Departments and establishing the foundation chairs. In fact, he had a very active role in filling most of the senior positions. in the University College at that time.

One of the spin-offs from his close working relationship with the AAEC was the donation in 1964 to the Wollongong University College by IBM of its first computer, an IBM 1620 which was to be replaced by a later model at Lucas Heights.

He also served as external examiner for the University of Papua New Guinea, on the council of the Institute of Marine Sciences, on the board of review for the Naval College at Jervis Bay and supervised several graduate students there. He had been a member of the Royal Society of NSW from 1955 and was a councillor from 1963 to 1972, President for 1968-69 during which period he reorganised their library, took an active part in the Society's Centenary Volume and for good measure, formed the South Coast Branch of the Society. Another of his administrative duties was to prepare the first submission to the Australian Universities Commission triennium report from the Wollongong University College.

This is only a brief statement of his administrative achievements. It is fair to say that certainly during the period when this institution was a College no one matched his vigour and achievements as a university administrator. Also the testimony from his administrative colleagues of those years make it clear that he was generous, putting the interests of the University as a whole ahead of those of his department, and just as well as being efficient.

It was a fitting acknowledgement of his administrative achievements that he was appointed the first Deputy Vice Chancellor during the first year of the new University 1975.

Now back to his first year as foundation Professor 1964. Here he is accepting all his administrative duties yet managing to supervise nine graduate research students and build up his own Department. How did he do it? By using the resources of his group at Lucas Heights until he was able to build up his own full time staff. Although his own research started to fall off after his appointment, somehow or other, he managed to publish in 1966, eight research papers plus the second edition of his "Mathematical Methods". In 1967 he spent six months study leave at the University of Leeds, which allowed him to refuel his research batteries (five papers over the next three years).

Austin Keane was not one to be constrained by administrative edicts he felt were unjustified. At Lucas Heights he championed the appointment of a haemophiliac that the Commonwealth medical officer had recommended against appointing. At Wollongong, he insisted on the appointment of a secretary with excellent qualifications despite Staff Office ruling that she was too young to appoint. Both of these appointments went on to outstanding careers.

Austin Keane had a wonderful grasp of a large number of areas of applied mathematics. Des Clarke reports how he could switch from talking to Tom Horner about his PhD work in Numerical Analysis, to his own in Oceanography, instantly, and immediately provide insightful comments and suggestions. His own area, of course, was nuclear reactor theory.

At the undergraduate level Austin Keane was a firm, and very early, believer in problem based learning. The series of books he edited on Integral Transforms, Special Functions and Numerical Analysis all had minimal theory but a large number of, often difficult, problems that the students had to attempt during supervised classes.

His leadership style was one of fairness, consultation but with an ability to act quickly.

In 1972, at age 45, the first symptoms of his fatal illness presented themselves. His father had died from a disease blocking the main arteries to his brain and now this was to be his fate. For some years he had developed a phobia to heights and never entered an aeroplane. This was found to be a consequence of the disease. Actually in his mid twenties he had booked a flight to Surfers Paradise and cancelled it at the last moment so that he could motor up with friends. The plane crashed killing everyone on board. So apart from his illness he really didn't relish flying.

In 1973 he partially lost the use of his left arm and his eyesight began to deteriorate. A four month study leave over the Christmas break was taken as visiting Professor, University of Papua Guinea. The opportunity to do mainly teaching and the relief from administrative worries resulted in a surprising recovery. He even started research into a new area, population dynamics, during this period. Returning to Wollongong he intensified his administrative duties as now he was Deputy Vice Chancellor and he took this appointment very seriously. Testimony to this are the many reports he completed including the "Keane Report" on administrative planning, which resulted in UoW having probably the most efficient of all Australian University administrations, and a report on computer developments.

Unbelievably in the midst of all this illness and administrative involvement he took a PhD student, (not to mention an honours student), and managed to supervise him to the stage where they had published three papers and it was only necessary to write up the thesis. In 1977 he spent six months study leave at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. Again the return to undergraduate teaching and relief from administration resulted in a brief recovery, but his health, and in particular, his eyesight deteriorated. Even though he had to be helped into his classroom and have his daughter write his notes on the blackboard he would not give in. His loyalty to his students was above his own suffering. It was only when he was stricken down with a stroke and confined to a wheelchair that he gave in. Returning to Australia he forced himself to work and somehow got rid of the wheelchair. Even so only his wife's loving care enabled him to carry on. By mid 1978, at the age of 51, he decided to retire. He appeared to recover quite dramatically but then in March 1979 his suffering was brought to an end. A generous donation from his family has made it possible to fund "The Austin Keane Prize".

As a result of his publications, about 60 articles including three books, and mainly because of his standing in reactor theory, he was awarded posthumously the first DSc from the University of Wollongong. It should be pointed out that about 20 of these publications are "E" reports from the AAEC Research Establishment and that such reports had a more rapid and wider circulation to specialists in his field than articles in outside journals. Also some of these publications are still classified.

His DSc and administrative achievements are each very formidable in their own right but his achievements in graduate supervision are perhaps even more significant. He supervised 28 graduate students who produced 18 PhD and ten Masters. theses What is more, only three of these had been completed before he came to Wollongong. This means that during his period at Wollongong, 14 years, he personally supervised 25 graduate students. Such an achievement is perhaps without parallel in Australia, certainly within the mathematics community. Supervision by Austin Keane was something very special. It meant that you could see him about your project practically any time of the day or night but certainly routinely twice a week. It meant that you were treated as his apprentice during the first six months or so and that he would continuously pass onto you everything he knew. If you showed any nervousness, stupidity, fear or other blockages he would probably write out everything for you and simply ask that you put some effort into understanding it and being able to reproduce it. After a while you could believe it was your own work and you were easily led into stage two which consisted of you actually extending the preliminary ideas. Sometimes it would be necessary to be brought home for a weekend of concentrated supervision either at his home at Caringbah or at his weekender at Minnamurra. As long as you showed a willingness, all this was made available to you. If you had an idea all your own, he encouraged and supported you completely with an absolute rejection of himself as co-author. Only when more than 50% of the ideas and write up were his would he put his name on a paper.

For those who knew Austin Keane after 1972, they knew him only as a shell of the Austin Keane of the 1960's. At his peak in terms of the composite man, energetic, single-minded purposeful, resourceful, productive and generous, he was a unique member of academe.

In 1960 he was invited to apply for a chair at one of the larger Australian universities. Let me finish with a quotation from his reply:

"The most appealing feature of a foundation chair lies in the almost unprecedented opportunity for the appointee to establish courses which are the correct blend of the traditional and the modern. Today's need for utilitarian mathematicians has been impressed on me while working in the atomic energy field both here and in England, and it is this need, coupled with a desire to preserve Mathematics as an art, that is giving a slow mutation to the courses of mathematical instruction throughout the Commonwealth".

No tribute to Austin Keane would be complete without an acknowledgement of the role of his wife Lorna. Together they created a wonderful social environment for Austin’s staff, and research students, and their families, and some lucky undergraduates. Activities ranged over formal functions, university wives groups, graduation lunches and dinners, and picnic and barbeque days, principally at their Minnamurra River holiday home, which were social highlights of the academic year. The generosity of Austin and Lorna made the Wollongong University mathematics department a community, almost a family, as much as a place of work, which those of us lucky enough to experience have not encountered elsewhere, and will never forget. Lorna’s contribution to their joint achievements was magic.

Austin Keane was survived by Lorna and their children Phillip and Joanne.

List of Publications

1. "Variation of the incompressibility of an elastic material subjected to large hydrostatic pressure", Nature 172, 117 (1953).
2. "An investigation of finite strain in an isotropic materials subjected to hydrostatic pressure and its seismological applications", Aust. J. Phys. 7, 322-333 (1954).
3. "The gravitational compression of an elastic sphere", Aust. J. Phys. 8, 167-175 (1955).
4. "The effect of leakage on mine ventilation", Colliery Engineering, p. 207, May (1955) (Jointly with W. Peascod).
5. "Reducing leakage in mine ventilation", Colliery Engineering, p. 463, November (1955) (Jointly with W. Peascod).
6. "The normal vibration frequencies of XY3Z3 molecules belonging to the point group D3h", J. and Proc. Roy. Soc. NSW, 89, 173 (1955).
7. "Note on the preceding paper by C.M. Groden", J. and Proc. Roy. Soc. NSW, 89, 184 (1955).
8. "Using a booster to reduce leakage", Colliery Engineering, p. 238, June (1956) (Jointly with W. Peascod).
9. "A problem on leakage reduction", Colliery Engineering, p. 333, August (1956) (Jointly with W. Peascod).
10. "Efficient use of a booster fan in mine ventilation", J. Proc. Roy. Soc. NSW, 90, 163 (1956) (Jointly with M.H. McKay and A.H. Low).
11. "An approximate calculation of the Doppler coefficient in natural uranium lattices", A.E.R.E. R/M 197 (1958). Classified "For Official Use Only".
12. "Resonance absorption in a slab with a parabolic temperature distribution", A.E.R.E. R/M 198 (1958).
13. "An investigation of the temperature dependence of the Doppler coefficient in natural uranium lattices", A.E.R.E. R/M 224 (1959). Classified "For Official Use Only". (Jointly with B.E. Seale).
14. "A derivation of the effective resonance integral in heterogeneous systems", A.A.E.C. E43 (1959) (Jointly with M.H. McKay and C.D. Cox).
15. "Complementary Mathematics", p. 224, Science Press, Sydney (1959) (Joint Editor and Part Contributor).
16. "A correction to the effective resonance integral in heterogeneous nuclear reactors to allow for fuel geometry", Aust. J. of Appl. Sc. 11, 1-15 (1960) (Jointly with M.H. McKay).
17. "A useful approximation in the theory of resonance absorption", Aust. J. of Appl. Sc. 11, 321 (1960) (Jointly with M.H. McKay).
18. "The Doppler coefficient for reactors containing thorium", A.A.E.C. E49 (1960) (Jointly with M.H. McKay and B.E. Clancy).
19. "Resonance absorption in a cylindrical fuel rod with radial temperature variation", J. and Proc. Roy. Soc. NSW, 94, 215-225 (1961) (Jointly with A. Reichel).
20. "Mathematical Methods", p. 258, Science Press, Sydney (1961) (Joint Editor with S.A. Senior).
21. "Complementary Mathematics" - Second Edition, p. 228, Science Press, Sydney (1960) (Joint Editor with S.A. Senior).
22. "Slowing down from an energy distributed neutron source", Nucl. Sci. and Eng. 10, 117 (1961).
23. "High energy neutron spectra in infinite homogeneous reactor systems moderated by Beryllium or Beryllia", A.A.E.C. E91 (1962) (Jointly with R.G. Mills).
24. "Slowing down with anisotropic scattering", Nucl. Sci. and Eng. 12, 313 (1962) (Jointly with J.P. Pollard).
25. "A comment on the collision density at epithermal energies", Nucl. Sci. and Eng. 15, 229 (1963) (Jointly with C.A. Wilkins).
26. "MULGA - A complex of codes for the determination of multigroup averaged neutron cross section data", A.A.E.C. E114 (1963) (Jointly with B.E. Clancy, et al).
27. "Doppler broadened contour functions in the complex domain", J. A.M.S., 4, 354-362 (1964) (Jointly with B.E. Clancy).
28. "Integrals involving Doppler broadened contour functions", A.A.E.C. E117 (1964) (Jointly with B.E. Clancy).
29. "Effective resonance integrals for low energy resonances", J. Nucl. Sci. Technol., 2, 445-449 (1965) (Jointly with M.H. McKay and J.P. Pollard).
30. "Equivalence relations for resonance absorption in small particles", A.A.E.C. E120 (1964).
31. "Integral Transforms", p. 59, Science Press, Sydney (1965).
32. "Mathematical Methods" - Second Edition, p. 258, Science Press, Sydney (1966) (Joint Editor with S.A. Senior).
33. "Iterative solution of the neutron slowing down equation", Nucl. Sci. Eng., 26, 530 (1966) (Jointly with M.W. Dyos).
34. "On the neutron flux distribution through a resonance", Nucl. Sci. Eng., 26, 288 (1966) (Jointly with M.W. Dyos).
35. "Exact solution of the problem of Goldstein and Cohen", Nucl. Sci. Eng., 26, 580 (1966) (Jointly with T.S. Horner).
36. "An estimate of the decrease in the effective resonance integral due to resonance overlap", Nucl. Sci. Eng., 25, 294-305 (1966).
37. "The maximum Doppler effect", Nucl. Sci. & Techn., 4, No.3, 149-151 (1967) (Jointly with T.S. Horner).
38. "The synthetic kernels of neutron slowing-down theory and a related expansion", A.A.E.C. E155 (1966) (Jointly with C.A. Wilkins).
39. "Multigroup cross sections of resonance absorbers", Nucl. Sci. Eng., 25, p. 439 (1966) (Jointly with M.H. McKay).
40. "Equivalence relations for heterogeneous reactor systems", A.A.E.C. E166 (1966) (Jointly with M.H. McKay).
41. "A study of the effective resonance integral and Doppler coefficient of U238 Th232, Pu240 using the code complex LUBRA", A.A.E.C. E168 (1966) (Jointly with E. Keltzmayr).
42. "A marine physics project", W.U.C. Bulletin, No.19 (1968) (Jointly with D.J. Clarke and P.J. O'Halloran).
43. "Equivalence relation based on an improved rational approximation", Nucl. Sci. & Techn., 6, No.5, 273-278 (1969) (Jointly with C. Chiarella).
44. "A problem in mine ventilation", J. Proc. Roy. Soc. NSW, 102, 83-86 (1969).
45. "An approximation for self shielding", A.A.E.C. TM539 (1970) (Jointly with M.W. Bunder).
46. "A comparison of estimates of nuclear bomb casualties from two different urban models", Operations Research, 17, p.923 (1969) (Jointly with C.A. Wilkins and J.A. Shaw).
47. "Mathematical Methods" - Third Edition, p.419, Science Press, Sydney (1975) (Joint Editor with Senior, Giles and Prokhovnik).
48. "Integral Transforms" - Second Edition, p. 59, Science Press, Sydney (1976).
49. "Series of roots of a transcendental equation", J. Proc. Roy. Soc. NSW, 110, 29-31 (1977) (Jointly with P. Cerone).
50. "The momentum of population growth with time dependent net maternity function", Dem. 15, 131-134 (1978) (Jointly with P. Cerone).
51. "The stable births resulting from a time dependent change between two net maternity functions", Dem. 15, 135-137 (1978) (Jointly with P. Cerone).

Technical Notes

1. "Topics in advanced mathematics", INE/M2, p. 89, March (1960) (Jointly with A. Reichel).
2. "A short course in nuclear engineering", INE/M3, p. 26, March (1960).
4. "An estimate of the decrease in the effective resonance integral due to resonance overlap", A.A.E.C. TM 296, p. 10, July (1965).
5. "Resonance absorption of low energy neutrons", A.A.E.C. TM 297, p. 6, August (1965). (Jointly with M.H. McKay and J.P. Pollard).
6. "Anisotropy in the migration area in a parallel slab subcritical assembly", A.A.E.C. TM 302, p. 4, November (1965).
7. "On the neutron flux distribution through a resonance", Nucl. Sci. Eng., 26, 288-291 (1966) (Jointly with M.W. Dyos).
8. "The temperature dependence of the overlap correction in resonance absorption calculations", AAEC TM 355, p. 11, November (1966) (Jointly with P.J. O'Halloran).
9. "The maximum Doppler effect for a single Breit-Wigner resonance", A.A.E.C. TM 363, p. 4, December (1966).

Higher Degrees Supervised

Professor Keane is Deputy Vice-Chancellor

(Article from The University of Wollongong Recorder June 1975)

Professor Austin Keane has been appointed part-time Deputy Vice-Chancellor for a term ending on December 31, 1977.

Professor Keane, who has been Professor of Mathematics since October 1, 1964, will deputise in the Vice-Chancellor's absence and will assist the Vice-Chancellor generally in the discharge of his duties.

He currently is Chairman of the Department of Mathematics and a member of the Academic Senate, the University's supreme academic advisory body.

Professor Keane has had extensive experience in administration. He was acting Warden of Wollongong University College for about four months in the latter half of 1970. He was elected the first chairman of the College Board of Studies and served in this position from 1968 to 1970.

He was chairman of the College Higher Degree Committee from its formation in 1968 until July, 1974, and head of the Division of Physical Science which included the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Geology.

In addition to these positions and membership of various other College committees, Professor Keane was a member of the University of New South Wales Professorial Board and of three of its sub-committees. He was also on the Council of the Institute of Marine Science.

He is a foundation member of the Australian Mathematics Society and a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales (of which he was president in 1968).

Apart from considerable experience in teaching and research, Professor Keane also has an impressive record in supervising postgraduate students.

Since October, 1964, when he took up duties at Wollongong, the Department of Mathematics has had 18 MSc and nine PhD graduates. Of these, Professor Keane has supervised all but one of the PhD candidates and more than half of the MSc candidates.

Four of his early PhD candidates have reached Professorial or Associate Professorial rank and include the Professor of Mathematics at the University of Papua New Guinea and Associate Professors at Sydney and Newcastle.

He has written 80 papers and reports and a book entitled, Integral Transforms. He has edited four books: Complementary Mathematics, in which he is also a contributor, Mathematics Methods, Special Functions, and Numerical Computing.

The Display

Design Team: Amanda Warton - Art Director

Daniel Pritchard - Designer

Catherine Du Toit - Client Liaison

Cameron Candy - Production Manager

Marius Foley - Supervisor

Contractor: John Newnes - Illawarra Glass

Unveiled by: Phillip and Joanne Keane

The first proposal for the Austin Keane Display, designed by Creative Arts students:

brought to mind local sandstone and Mount Keira, which lies to the west of the University. An image of Austin Keane in his Vice-Chancellor's gown is featured as well as some of his handwritten work.

The current display retains this image of Austin Keane in the centre and also features some of his work and is based on the diagram used in the proof of Pascal's Theorem (see below). Austin Keane, as a third year student in 1948, was awarded the Norbert Quirk prize for his presentation of the proof. The triangular glass panels in the display are the triangles that can be seen in the diagram below.

The whole diagram is also reproduced in the top left-hand panel. The top right-hand panel shows, in his own handwriting, some work on beta and hypergeometric functions from one of his notebooks. More detail appears below.

This notebook, the Norbert Quirk prize winning essay and Austin Keane's collected works, while on view for the opening of the display, are stored in the University archives.

The contractor, John Newnes, of Illawarra Glass, contributed significantly to the way the display was eventually presented.

Pascal's Theorem

The fifteen joins of six points on a conic intersect in forty-five points which lie three by three on sixty straight lines.

Alternative Version:

The three points of intersection of the opposite sides of a hexagon inscribed in a conic, are collinear.

Last reviewed: 5 June, 2007