Background

Robert Lewis Fullarton Boyd was born on October 19, 1922, in Saltcoats, North Ayrshire, United Kingdom. He was a son of William John Boyd, a chemist, and Dorothy Jane Boyd, maiden name Sibthorpe. When Robert was two, the family moved to South Croydon where his father became the Head of Science at the Croydon Polytechnic.

Education

Robert Boyd's interest in science and technology was awakened during his time as a pupil at Whitgift School - and his enthusiasm extended to setting up his own workshop at home. His school prefects regularly confused him with his twin brother William, a situation he capitalized on to spend more time in his workshop. State bursaries provided a route to university, and both brothers enrolled to study electrical engineering at Imperial College in 1941. Robert chose power engineering, but was disappointed by the lack of scientific content, and focused his energy outside the college on developing skills in radio and mechanics. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 1943. As an engineering graduate, he could not register for a Doctor of Philosophy in physics, and his thesis, New Techniques For The Study Of Ionised Gases, was submitted in 1949 when it was becoming known that the Earth's outer atmosphere was ionized by radiation from the sun. Robert Boyd earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the University College London in 1949. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from Heriot-Watt University in 1979.

Career

After graduating in 1943, Robert Boyd as an experimental officer joined the Admiralty Mining Establishment, at West Leigh House, Havant, close to the Portsmouth naval base and worked until 1946. Here he encountered Harrie Massey, thus beginning an association that was to prove so crucial for the future of the United Kingdom space activities. Other staff members who nurtured his growing interest in physical science included the physicist David Bates, the oceanographer George Deacon and Francis Crick, later to win a Nobel Prize for his work on the structure of DNA. This formative period exposed him to a range of instrumentation-based disciplines and he gained vital experience in conducting field trials of instruments using aircraft and ships. In 1946-1949, he was a research assistant at the Univerity College London (UCL) Mathematics Department. His stay in mathematics was somewhat uncomfortable. Lacking any laboratory space, he was forced to grow his experimental apparatus out of his window and on to the fire escape, leaning outside to make adjustments. Later, in 1950-1952, he was a Physics Department research fellow.

In May 1953, Massey walked into Boyd's laboratory and posed the question: "Boyd, how would you like some rockets for research?" The rocket in question was the then newly developed Skylark vehicle that was later to become the mainstay of the United Kingdom upper atmosphere and space astronomy research. Suffice to say that Boyd responded enthusiastically to this challenge and within a few years had built up United Kingdom's leading space physics research group at UCL. Studies of the ionosphere, requiring the development of innovative Langmuir Probe and other instrumentation in which Boyd excelled, led naturally to the need for measurement of the Sun's X-ray emission. This in turn opened the way for the detection of cosmic X-rays, which allowed to study some of the most energetic objects in the universe, namely neutron stars and black holes. A crucial step in this sequence came with the launch of the United Kingdom/United States Ariel I spacecraft in 1962. The first international collaborative science mission of the space age, Ariel I was designed to study the ionosphere, solar X-rays and high-energy cosmic-ray particles. The United Kingdom/United States collaboration in this ground-breaking project established an enduring relationship with NASA that led to many future United Kingdom involvements in NASA spacecraft. Boyd and his colleagues played the major part in this hugely successful mission that thus paved the way for a substantial expansion of the United Kingdom space science effort. Programme expansion created the need for larger facilities and with the aid of a generous donation by the Mullard Company to University College, Boyd established the College's Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) at Holmbury St. Mary in Surrey and became its first Director in 1967. The laboratory subsequently became a world-leading centre for the space sciences. Many of its staff and research students have gone on to lead successful space research groups both in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. His management style embodied firm control in planning and financial matters with heady freedom for staff to develop new ideas. Under Boyd's leadership, MSSL instruments were launched on orbiting spacecraft at an average rate of one each year. He also initiated a programme of Earth studies from space that has grown to become a leading activity in the study of Earth's climate evolution. He retired in 1983.

Robert Boyd was a lecturer in 1952-1958, a reader in 1959-1962, and a professor in 1962-1983 at UCL. From 1961 to 1967, he was a professor of astronomy at the Royal Institution. In 1964, when the European Space Agency was first formed, Boyd became an advisor in rocket research. He was a member of the United Kingdom Science Research Council in 1977-1981, and a chairman of its Astronomy Space and Radio Board in 1977-1980.

Boyd continued his research in astrophysics, solar physics, space plasma, and remote sensing for many years. He also served as a trustee of the National Maritime Museum until 1989. His interest in high-quality engineering remained strong, and he collected, and restored, Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars - a hobby that enabled his research students to occasionally travel to meetings in grander style than is considered usual. To his obvious satisfaction, from time to time, elegant features of Rolls-Royce designs were incorporated into satellite instrumentation. Given their substantial appreciation in value following his work, he used to remark that a Rolls Royce was the only vehicle he could afford to run. However, it was characteristic of his strong Christian philosophy that he auctioned one of his prized vehicles and raised a substantial sum for famine relief.

Achievements

• Robert Boyd was appointed a Commander of the British Empire in 1972 and was knighted in 1982 for his services to science. He established the new discipline of space science at University College London, and the work he did with his mentor Sir Harrie Massey did much to propel the United Kingdom to the forefront of the new area of physical science. As director of the University College's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, he created a unique environment in which engineers and scientists worked together on topics that ranged from studies of Earth, Sun, and solar system to observations of the most energetic objects in the universe. He also initiated a program of Earth studies from space which has become one of the United Kingdom's leading activities in the study of the planet's climate evolution. His legacy of robust strategic management, combined with a lively enthusiasm for science and engineering, lives on at the senior level in many research groups across the world.

Works

• book

  • Space Research By Rocket and Satellite 1960

Religion

Robert Boyd combined his scientific life with profound faith and an active role in the church, believing the hand of God to be at work in the universe. Through his writings, lectures, and broadcasts on science and faith in the 1950s and 1960s he assisted with the growth of the Research Scientists' Christian Fellowship that grew into the larger and more influential Christians in Science of today. He saw no conflict between faith and science; on the contrary, he saw them as complementing each other in a very subtle manner.

Interests

• collecting and restoring Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars

Connections

Robert Boyd married Mary Higgins on September 3, 1949, in Bradford, Yorkshire. They enjoyed a long and happy time together until her death in 1996. Two years later, he married Betty, whose love and care enhanced his final years. Robert Boyd had three children of his first marriage, Hazel, Robert, and Stephen.

Father:

William John Boyd

William John Boyd was a United Kingdom chemist, who undertook research at Imperial College, London, before becoming the Head of Science at what was then Croydon Polytechnic.

Mother:

Dorothy Jane Boyd

late wife:

Mary Higgins

Wife:

Betty Boyd

Daughter:

Hazel Boyd

Son:

Robert Boyd

Son:

Stephen Boyd

Brother:

William Boyd

Colleague, mentor:

Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey

Sir Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey was an Australian-born mathematical physicist who worked primarily in the fields of atomic and atmospheric physics. He had a distinguished career in the United Kingdom and in 1931, with Edward Bullard, published the first experimental evidence for electron diffraction in gases. He saw the potential of using direct rocket probes of the atmosphere layers and eventually, as Chairman of the British National Committee for Space Research, he guided the entire United Kingdom space research program.