Alan Langdon: Always ahead of his time
Alan George Langdon DSc October 9, 1942 – September 1, 2018
Alan Langdon embodied a Kiwi ruggedness and Number 8 wire ingenuity by day – and knew his merlot from his malbec by night. man of fierce intellect, he was, according to son Owen, a Red Band gumboot-wearing political assassin who would happily solve world problems after chasing stray animals out of the vege garden on his Ngahinapouri lifestyle block on which he kept a few ‘‘beefies’’.
Pragmatic and practical, he was one of that rare band who designed, and painstakingly built, his house by hand.
This involved shovelling gravel over 400m of driveway, pouring the concrete foundation one wheelbarrow at a time, and building walls from hand sawn 4-by-2 timber and weatherboard.
‘‘The resulting elegant two-storey timber structure,’’ Owen told those at Alan’s funeral, ‘‘still leaves many builders and engineers perplexed as to how it is still standing today’’.
On this evidence, it is fair to say Alan went some way toward breaking the stereotype image of a university chemistry professor.
Alan was appointed a lecturer at the University of Waikato in 1971, two years after the establishment of the science faculty.
One of five children born to Inez and Fred Langdon, of Waitotara, Alan completed his education at Wanganui Collegiate, Victoria University, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He was to stay with Waikato for more than 40 years and become an acknowledged leader in the development of the university’s science and technology programmes, and a pioneer in forging links between academic research and local and regional industry.
He played a major role in developing the University of Waikato’s BSc (Technology) and MSc (Technology) programmes. To ensure sufficient staffing he was instrumental in creating shared appointments with Crown Research Institutes such as LandCare, and with private research institutes such as the then Meat Industry Research Institute of New Zealand.
And, in the days when academicindustry links were unusual, he worked hard outside the ivory tower to set up student work placements, so they could complete research topics relevant to employers’ needs.
As a result, an important aspect of his work was managing commercially-driven research conducted off-campus and he became a key figure and pioneer in collaborative teaching and research supervision before this was common practice. During his career he supervised 81 masters and doctoral students, many funded by scholarships and research grants he obtained.
Emeritus Professor (Engineering) Janis Swan said Alan’s initiatives were ahead of their time.
‘‘The most recent changes in Waikato’s degree programmes ensure all programmes include papers that make it easier for the graduate to move smoothly into work, but I think we should recognise the pioneering work Alan did in this area from the late 1980s.
‘‘As we progressed through the recent ‘changes’, or if I see other tertiary institutions advertising programmes that include ‘innovation’, I often say ‘but Waikato has been doing that since the late 1980s’.’’
Alan attempted to instil the same academic rigour at home. While son Gareth says they were not lulled to sleep each night with renditions of the periodic table, they did learn to be wary of school science fairs.
‘‘Each year when school science fair time rolled round we would start hiding the notices and ducking for cover. It’s not to say we didn’t want to do the school science fair, it’s just that we couldn’t figure out how to do it with dad. Once our idea had been accepted though, there was often great fun to be had with dad doing the experiments and building things’’.
Emeritus professor (chemistry) Alistair Wilkins said much of Alan’s personal expertise and outputs were directed towards fields that required the development of chemical and technological solutions to local and regional industrial problems.
These included those associated with water purification and filtration, the identification and biological treatment of effluents discharged by pulp and paper mills, and the refinement of processes and technologies used to control flavours in wines, vegetables oils, and dairy products.
‘‘Alan was very good at obtaining research grants and student scholarship funds to support these investigations from a variety of agencies. Over the years several patents were issued in respect of water filtration technologies and process refinements which he developed.’’
Alan’s research, perhaps, was at least partly driven by every farmer’s interest in potable water, and he was one of those researchers who grasped his personal holy grail.
Along with fellow chemist Dr Hilary Nath, Alan devised an innovative, electrochemical, method for treating bore water on Waikato farms.
Their device aimed to remove the iron and manganese prevalent in bore water from Waikato’s peaty soils.
These residues give the water its typical browny-orange colour, and generally make it undrinkable without expensive treatment using aerators, filters, ion exchangers, and tanks.
In 2012 Alan and Hilary came up with a simple system that precipitated out the metal contaminants, and also disinfected the water passing through the system, making it safe to drink. Best of all, the whole system could be powered by a car battery.
Known as PEFT – perforated electric flow through – the system is patented in New Zealand.
Interviewed at the time, Alan said their initial focus was the disinfection of harvested rain water, supplies derived from surface water, and bore water contaminated with iron.
‘‘We need to be very sure our technology is robust before contemplating overseas markets,’’ he told the university newsletter.
In an unforeseen research side-effect, for a while the PEFT saw Alan become the ‘‘poster boy’’ for student recruitment to the university’s science and technology programmes.
But with all scientific endeavour the road to final success can be rocky, and it is just as well the university did not think to ask Alan’s children what they thought of their father’s endeavours, Owen said.
‘‘We took great pleasure joining his quest to find his holy grail – to convert iron bore water to potable drinking water – until our swimming pool turned to a rust orange colour and we had to spend weeks vacuuming out an odd metallic sludge.’’ Alan had national creditability and was made a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry in 1985 and served on the NZIC committee.
Outside of the classroom and off the farm, Alan, a university Honorary Fellow, held key administrative roles including Pro-Dean of the School of Science, Centre for Technology director, and chairperson of the Faculty’s Radiation Safety Committee. He was a member of the Faculty Board of Studies, the audit committee, the Water Research Unit, the Academic Board, and the University Council.
There is one last story to be told. Alan was a passionate home brewer, which once led to a confrontation. As daughter Claire tells it, while staying over at Alan’s house one night, her partner Jason was awoken in the early hours by a banging and crashing, which he assumed was an intruder. Jason leapt out of bed and crept into the kitchen, cricket bat in hand.
‘‘We are still not sure who appeared more confused... Dad seeing Jas in his underwear with a cricket bat or Jas witnessing Dad pounding grapes with his walking stick.’’
Alan was the loved dad and father-inlaw of Gareth and Therese; Owen and Lucy; and Claire and Jason; a cherished Poppa to Hailey; and former husband and friend of Margaret.
A Life Story tells of a New Zealander who helped to shape the Waikato community. If you know of someone whose story should be told, please email Charles.Riddle@wintec.ac.nz