1961
Man-powered flight
- Graduates from the University's Department of Aeronautics were the chief contenders in a competition organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society, to construct a man-powered aircraft.
- The aircraft they developed had an 80-foot wingspan and was 25 feet long. It was to be pedalled by Olympic runner Martin Hyman, who was insured for £40,000!
1962
Pioneering contribution
- Professor Eric Zepler, who made an outstanding and pioneering contribution to radio receiver development, retired from the Chair of Electronics in 1962. His name is now associated with many famous radio receivers and transmitters, and equipment of his design was used by both the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe.
The Zepler Building now provides facilities for research groups in declarative systems and software engineering, microelectronics and design automation, parallel and distributed computing, and multimedia.
European Gold medal
- Southampton graduate Bruce Tulloh (BSc Botany 1959) won a gold medal in the 5000 metres at the 1962 European Games. He set British and European records for the two-, three- and six- mile races.
1964
Bergerac
- John Nettles (who later went on to make his name in the TV series Bergerac) appeared in a successful production of 'Dr Macabre' which reached the finals of The Sunday Times NUS Festival.
1965
Putting Southampton on the map
- On joining the University, new VC Professor Kenneth Mather said, "I was keen to come to Southampton because it is one of the most rapidly expanding of the established Universities and it is putting itself more and more on the map."
1966
Caligula victorious!
- The student production of Caligula won the trophy at the 11th NUS drama festival, adjudicated by the drama critic of The Sunday Times, Harold Hobson. The winning production had a week's run at St Martin's Theatre in London.
Archaeology digs in
- The Department of Archaeology at Southampton was founded in 1966. Its first Professor, Cunliffe, was one of the pioneers of modern British Archaeology.
1968
Science research in progress
Among the achievements in various departments/Research Centres:
- Department of Chemistry: high resolution nuclear magnetic spectroscopy resonance.
- The Department of Mechanical Engineering: work on diffusion studies in silicon.
- Department of Electronics: adaptive systems for transmission of data over H.F. circuits.
- ISVR: structural damming of high frequency vibration.
- Department of Electrical Engineering: digital direct control and functioning of the human lung.
- Department of Astronautics and Aeronautics: Navier-Stokes equations for flow in the centre of vortices.
