Nicola Hilda Williams (née Donkin)

BSc; Dip.Ed; (Melbourne), MSc; (Monash), FRACI.

Former Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, Monash University

Former Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Science, Monash University

Nicola, seen here, celebrating her recent 63rd birthday

After completing BSc. Dip.Ed. at the University of Melbourne, I taught chemistry, maths and general science at Springvale High School. I was lucky enough to teach the first Year 12 chemistry class, which was very hard work but most rewarding.

In 1963, I married Mike, then Chief Engineer on the M.V. Wharangoa, New Zealand Shipping Company, and spent most of the next 15 months at sea with him. He paid off in England, where our first child, Rachel, was born in 1965, then we returned to Australia and lived in Sydney, where Stephanie was born in 1967. Ivan was born just after we moved to Melbourne in 1970, and we have lived here ever since except for a wonderful 2 years in Bath, UK, 1973-4.

While busy with small children I kept up my teaching with private tutoring in maths and chemistry, and also taught these subjects while we lived in Bath. I’d spent 2 years as a part-time chemistry demonstrator at Monash before this, and when we returned I continued.

I gradually increased my appointment fraction in chemistry to 0.5, and in 1984 was also appointed Subdean of the Faculty of Science, a position I held for 11 years.

I was appointed to Senior Lecturer in chemistry (0.5) in 2000, and retired from that position early in 2002.

I’ve also been very active in my professional organisation, The Royal Australian Chemical Institute, especially in chemical education activities. My research interests were in Inorganic Kinetics, in which I completed a part-time MSc in 1982, and Biological Chemistry, but shifted later into History of Science, particularly old instruments.

I continue as Curator of the Faculty of Science Instrument Collection, with an emphasis on measuring instruments, especially analytical balances. I have an ongoing collaboration with two UK scientists who are writing a history of the balance firm of Oertling, and one of my interests is to track down and photograph any ‘export Oertlings’ I can find. These beautiful instruments were imported from UK, Europe and USA to cope with the assay demand from the goldfields, and were also needed by Mints, industry and educational institutions. If any reader knows of such a balance, I’d be delighted to hear about it.

Mike and I have always been keen bushwalkers and campers, and have now had two long trips exploring this huge country, navigating by National Parks and old mining towns. These cover most of our common interests, as well as my kayaking and Mike’s photography.

On a family level, we have two grand daughters from our daughter Stephanie, who is studying for a part-time MSc at Monash. Our elder daughter Rachel, who did chemistry Honours at Monash and a PhD at Cambridge, works with CSIRO, and Ivan is a medical physicist at the Peter McCallum Institute, after doing physics Honours at Monash and a part-time MSc at Melbourne. Mike retired early from marine engineering, and is currently completing a PhD in Australian history at Monash.

Nicola was Head Prefect in 1957, along with David Raby.

Debs - Anyone wishing to contact Nicola, regarding Oertling balances can email me at landieATbigondDOTnetDOTau and I will forward messages on to her.