Many are aware that Bangor-born was involved in the development of the Mullberry temporary harbours used during the D Day Landings- some of which were also built at Conwy Morfa.
Less well-known if the contribution of Blaenau Ffestiniog-born Jack Derbyshire, who also played a pivotal role in the D- Day preparations.
Jack graduated from 麻豆传媒高清版 with a Physics degree in 1940. He then joined the Admiralty Research Establishment at Teddington. At Teddington he was assigned to 聽鈥楪roup W鈥, a small group of mathematicians and physicists, whose objective was to study the propagation of ocean waves over very long distances, to aid development of methods to predict wave conditions and so provide wave forecasts to aid amphibious landings. Even medium height swell waves could make such landing perilous.
In doing so they built a 鈥榳ave-analysis鈥 machine which could separate out the different wave components. Through this analysis they were able to show that the longer swell waves from storms arrived before the local wind chop. As such they were able to predict wave conditions several days in the future.
Professor Jack Derbyshire
The advances they made in improving wave forecasts, in their bid to aid the war effort, are now widely regarded as the beginning of modern physical oceanography here in the UK.
Physical Oceanography at Bangor
In 1963 the new department of Physical Oceanography at 麻豆传媒高清版 came into existence with the appointment of Jack Derbyshire as Head of Department and the first Chair of Physical Oceanography. Since then, the study of physical oceanography at 麻豆传媒高清版 has gone from strength to strength.
World leading oceanographic research within the School of Ocean Sciences spans the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from centimetre scale turbulent mixing processes to global tides through the Earth鈥檚 history, and to the characterization of marine energy resources and the impacts of extraction.
Professor Tom Rippeth added,
鈥淛ack was well known in the local community here in Menai Bridge until his passing in 2004. What was less well known was his wartime work with Group-W colleagues and that his fundamental work on ocean waves is still taught across the globe.鈥
