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COLLEGE LIFEJoshua Silver (1964, Physics)on the establishment of the Neville Robinson Physics PrizesNeville RobinsonIn November 2008, the College received agenerous donation from Professor JoshuaSilver for the establishment of two annualPhysics prizes for the best performance inFinal Honours School at the third- andfourth-year stage. The Neville RobinsonPhysics Prizes are named in honour ofCatz Founding Fellow Neville Robinson, anoutstanding physicist and gifted tutor, whoseinvention of the Robinson Marginal Oscillator In the interview I explained how I builtheralded the start of real success in the field electronics at home and then he askedof nuclear magnetic resonance (which is the me what A levels I would get, to which Ifundamental basis of all MRI systems used in answered ‘Three As and a B’. Neville said,hospitals today).‘You get three As and a B and I’ll give you aplace’. I did so and thus started my career inComing up to University age atone of the old Londongrammar schools, HackneyDowns School, I decided Iwould like to go either toOxford or Cambridge. However,there was a snag. When Ilooked into preparing forEntrance, I discovered thatthere was no one at the school(teachers or boys) who coulddo the entrance or scholarshipexam questions! So I wrote to aNeville turnedout to be amostwonderfultutor ...Physics. Neville turned out tobe a most wonderful tutor andbecame a very close friend asI moved up the ranks in theClarendon Laboratory. He wasnever too busy to spend timesharing his astoundingknowledge and wisdom withme, and he advised me onmany things over the years.He was so modest that I onlydiscovered his role in doingthe groundwork for a NobelCambridge College and an Oxford College Prize quite by accident when I saw one of his(St Catherine’s) and asked if I could come papers in an exhibit in Washington, DC. Withimmediately after A Levels, so as not to waste this background, I felt it only right to give athe year.prize in his honour, and in the hope that theinspiration he gave me might be passed onCambridge told me they didn’t do that, but to future generations of physicists atNeville Robinson, being an independent St Catherine’s.thinker, suggested I come for an interview.Joshua SilverST CATHERINE’S COLLEGE 2008/19