J.W.T. Spinks headed the Canadian delegation to the meeting. Overhead view of participants seated at long tables.

J.W.T. Spinks (second from right), University President, and Mary Spinks (third from right) chat with unidentified guests at a tea held in the President's Residence following a University of Saskatchewan Senate meeting.

Looking at some equipment in the Linear Accelerator Lab are (l to r): Dr. Leon Katz, Director of Linear Accelerator Laboratory and Professor of Physics; Dr. Vasilii Vasilevich Vladimirskii, Russian nuclear physicist and Director of the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow; and J.W.T. Spinks, University President and Professor of Chemistry.

J.W.T. Spinks, University President, watches Sir John Cockcroft, Nobel Prize-winning scientist; use the shovel to break ground. On raised dais in background are Herb Pinder (second from left), member, University Board of Governors; and S.L. (Sid) Buckwold (third from left), Mayor of Saskatoon.

Bio/Historical Note: The building of the Linear Accelerator (Linac) was not a random event but rather the result of a series of developments on campus. The Department of Physics had over the previous decades built a reputation for experimentation and innovation. The post-war period saw the University of Saskatchewan in the forefront of nuclear physics in Canada. In 1948, Canada’s first betatron (and the world’s first used in the treatment of cancer) was installed on campus. It was used for research programs in nuclear physics, radiation chemistry, cancer therapy and radiation biology. Next the world’s first non-commercial cobalt-60 therapy unit for the treatment of cancer was officially opened in 1951. With this unit research was undertaken in the areas of radiological physics, radiation chemistry and the effects of high energy radiation on plants and animals. When the construction of the Linear Accelerator was announced in the fall of 1961, it was portrayed as the next logical step on the University’s research path. Varian Associates, Palo Alto, California, designed and built the accelerator with Poole Construction of Saskatoon employed as the general contractor. The 80 foot electron accelerator tube was to create energy six times that of the betatron. The cost of the $1,750,000 facility was split between the National Research Council and the University of Saskatchewan with the NRC meeting the cost of the equipment and the University assuming the costs of the building. The official opening in early November of 1964 was more than just a few speeches and the cutting of a ribbon. It was a physics-fest, with 75 visiting scientist from around the world in attendance presenting papers and giving lectures over the period of several days. Three eminent physicists were granted honorary degrees at the fall convocation and hundreds of people showed up for the public open house. For three decades the Linac has served the campus research community and will continue to do so as it has become incorporated into the Canadian Light Source synchrotron.

J.W.T. Spinks, University President, speaks during the Linear Accelerator Building official opening.

Bio/Historical Note: The building of the Linear Accelerator (Linac) was not a random event but rather the result of a series of developments on campus. The Department of Physics had over the previous decades built a reputation for experimentation and innovation. The post-war period saw the University of Saskatchewan in the forefront of nuclear physics in Canada. In 1948, Canada’s first betatron (and the world’s first used in the treatment of cancer) was installed on campus. It was used for research programs in nuclear physics, radiation chemistry, cancer therapy and radiation biology. Next the world’s first non-commercial cobalt-60 therapy unit for the treatment of cancer was officially opened in 1951. With this unit research was undertaken in the areas of radiological physics, radiation chemistry and the effects of high energy radiation on plants and animals. When the construction of the Linear Accelerator was announced in the fall of 1961, it was portrayed as the next logical step on the University’s research path. Varian Associates, Palo Alto, California, designed and built the accelerator with Poole Construction of Saskatoon employed as the general contractor. The 80 foot electron accelerator tube was to create energy six times that of the betatron. The cost of the $1,750,000 facility was split between the National Research Council and the University of Saskatchewan with the NRC meeting the cost of the equipment and the University assuming the costs of the building. The official opening in early November of 1964 was more than just a few speeches and the cutting of a ribbon. It was a physics-fest, with 75 visiting scientist from around the world in attendance presenting papers and giving lectures over the period of several days. Three eminent physicists were granted honorary degrees at the fall convocation and hundreds of people showed up for the public open house. For three decades the Linac has served the campus research community and will continue to do so as it has become incorporated into the Canadian Light Source synchrotron.

J.W.T. Spinks, University President, standing with Dr. Gerhard Herzberg, winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, enjoy the musical stylings of the Intensely Vigorous College Nine during a dinner held in Marquis Hall in honour of Herzberg.

Bio/Historical Note: The Intensely Vigorous College Nine marching band was founded on 1 October 1954 by “Bobs” Caldwell as a spoof on college marching bands. It began life as the Dawn Sommers-Irvine Epstein Memorial Band, in reference to a 1954 prank in which three law students convinced everyone on campus that an aspiring Winnipeg actress visiting campus was actually a rising starlet on contract with Paramount Studios. Irvine Epstein was supposedly the one who exposed the hoax, hence the name. In the fall of 1954 the band changed its name to the G.B. Armstrong Memorial Vegetable Soup Contest and Tug O’ War College Marching Band before settling on the Intensely Vigorous College Nine, perhaps in reference to the ‘College Nine,’ a popular student swing band of the late 1940s. Having rehearsed regularly and dismissing rumours that they were learning only one number, members summed up the band’s progress by noting “she’s not much for music but she’s hell for laughs.” Their first public appearance was at the Homecoming weekend parade. So unusual was their talent, so original their arrangements and so spirited their participation during those festivities that the College Nine were named “Men of the Week” by the Sheaf. The Intensely Vigorous College Nine remained a campus tradition long past the graduation of its original membership, and was an entertaining presence at the University until the mid-1990s. In addition to being active participants in student life, many band members went on to great achievement in their professional careers. Indeed, one alumnus of the College Nine, Ray Hnatyshyn (1934-2002) PC CC CMM CD QC QC (Sask) Hon. FRHSC, became Governor General of Canada.

Dr. Vasilii Vasilevich Vladimirskii, Russian nuclear physicist and Director of the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, receives an honourary Doctor of Science degree in a special ceremony in President Spinks' office. Standing (l to r): Dr. B.W. Currie, Dr. Leon Katz, Norman K. Cram, Dr. Vladimirskii and J.W.T. Spinks.

Bio/Historical Note: Born in August 1915 in Zheleznovodsk. Russia, Dr. Vasilii Vasilevich Vladimirskii graduated from Moscow University in 1938. Since 1946, he has been deputy director of the Theoretical and Experimental Physics Institute in Moscow. His works have been in optics, propagation of ultrasound and electromagnetic waves as well as in the theory of linear accelerators and neutron spectroscopy. He participated in the creation of the Serpukhov accelerator whose energy level is 70 giga-electron-volts. State Prize, 1953; Lenin Prize, 1970. He served as an advisor to the Theoretical and Experimental Physics Institute (ITEP) in Moscow.

J.W.T. Spinks standing at a podium with a large cheque on the wall behind him from the University of Saskatchewan Engineering Alumni in Calgary, Alberta, acceptance was made at the Calgary Inn.