Les William, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetLes William
Australian maker of scientific instruments
Date of Birth: 
About Les William
- J.
- L.
- (Les) William (January 18, 1915 – June 4, 1994) was an Australian builder of scientific instruments.
- Born in Melbourne, Australia he was known for his beautiful and precision craftsmanship and was known as one of the best scientific instrument makers in Australia.
- His equipment can be found in Australian laboratories that existed from the 1930s through to the 1980s.
- He founded a company situated in the Melbourne suburb of Hughesdale called J.L.
- William Scientific Instruments.
- William attended Caulfield Technical School and worked at his brother's firm during the Second World War.
- Soon after he set up his own instrumentation company.
- He never married and in his later years suffered from motor neurone disease. Les William liked to recall Lord Kelvin's dictum that one did not truly understand a scientific quantity until one could measure it and provide an accurate numerical value.
- William's career was closely linked to that of his older brother Austin (1913 - 1985).
- During the Second World War the two brothers worked together producing electrical meters.
- After the war, Austin continued on in the manufacture of electrical meters while Les established his own company producing high accuracy standard resistors.
- He died in Melbourne on June 4, 1994.
- In his will, William made a substantial bequest to Monash University Department of Physics.A portrait of J.
- L.
- (Les) William was commissioned by Monash University's School of Physics.
- The portrait was painted by the Adelaide artist Ms Avril Thomas.
- The J.
- L.
- William Bequest to the School of Physics specifically mentions "quantum measurements", and the portrait will be displayed in the Monash University's New Horizons Centre; a multi-disciplinary building which encompasses energy research, low-dimensional and nano-material physics research, atom optics, laser trapping and cooling, and Bose-Einstein condensates.
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