Historical Article
Robert W Stanford MA (Cantab) FInstP FAIP FACPSM Hon FRACP Hon MRCR
Consultant Physicist and Head of Department, Royal Perth Hospital
Robert (Bob) Stanford was born in the United Kingdom, graduating as dux of his school and proceeding to Christ’s College, Cambridge where he graduated BA in 1939. During World War II he was commissioned in the Royal Artillery and was active in Britain’s anti-aircraft radar programme and was Deputy Assistant Director of Mechanical Engineering at the war office.
Following the war, he became a senior physics master at Felstead School but left there in 1948 to become a lecturer in physics at Guys Hospital. Whilst there, he made a report on the genetic hazards of radiation which received world-wide recognition.
In 1958 he was offered and accepted the post of Head of Department of Medical Physics at Royal Perth Hospital.
In subsequent years the department developed from a staff of four to approximately 50 when he retired in 1980. It is a testament to his tenacity and his determination to place the physical sciences on a sound footing in Western Australia. As a lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine in Physics he made the teaching of physics relevant to the practice of medicine and dentistry. Tied with this was his conviction that scientists working in a hospital setting should be recognised as professionals with clinical standing. His national and international standing is reflected in his membership of the Australian Academy of Science, the NH&MRC Radiation Health Committee and as elected Federal Chairman of the Biophysics Group of the Australian Institute of Physics. He was also invited by the British Government to review technological development in the Physical Sciences and their application to medicine in 1972.
For years he fought a brave personal battle against cancer and in this he showed the same determination with which he waged a successful battle to establish the Medical Physics services of Western Australia.
Robert Stanford died in 1986.
