The Output
We train students and we publish the results
of our and their research. We cannot now compute easily how many students
completed their Part II projects or submitted for their D.Phil. (or, in early
days, M.Sc.) in each of the past fifty years, but we do know the number of
students working in the Laboratory for most of the years: there is a gap in the
records in the early 1970's.
The graph shows the number of supervisors of
research groups and the number of students (Part II and D.Phil.) at five-yearly
intervals from 1941 to 1991. Both have risen steadily except for a minor break
in the late 1970's. There are now 24 supervisors of research of whom 19 are
members of the permanent academic staff. There are 44 Part II students and 68
reading for D.Phil. There is no complete record of the number of post-doctoral
research fellows, but their number has risen roughly in line with the number of
students; there are 27 this year (1991).
The number of publications - books and
papers - has also risen from a negligible number during the war, when most of
the research was `classified' to a maximum of 139 in 1988. The graph shows them
also, as three-yearly averages to smooth out adventitious fluctuations and to
make them comparable with the financial figures. Our `productivity' has
remained remarkably constant at about one publication a year per
student-and-supervisor (neglecting the post-doctoral fellows). If, however,
productivity is measured in publication per inflation-corrected pound then it
can be seen by comparing the two graphs that it has improved substantially
since 1974.
The figures from 1995 onwards include those
from the former Theoretical Chemistry Department. There are two Glasstone
Research Fellows and 43 other Research Assistants and Post-doctoral Fellows
working in the laboratory at present (2001).
