So I couldn't find an image that I could confirm was Homer Clyde Snook, which is a shame. But regardless, he was a physicist working in the field of roentgen rays, soon to be relabeled x-rays. Working for the Victor company, he made the delightfully-titled “Snook Apparatus”, an early device to create x-rays.
I mean, look at this thing:
And check this out: at the start of World War II, he registered for the draft. He was 64 at the time. What a champ.
I think one of the interesting side effects of being in New Zealand during Covid-19 is that people are looking closer to home for everything – at least in Aotearoa, where we're in a small Covid-free bubble of our own. So here's another homegrown scientist!
Dr. Ngaio Beausoleil also works at Massey University, but unlike me at the artsy Wellington campus, she's on the agri nexus of New Zealand, Palmerston North. I found out about her work while researching for my suspended Herdr project, and have continued to be in awe of her research output quality and volume.
A ngaio is a lovely kind of tree endemic to Aotearoa. It looks like this:
She shares the same given name as Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand's Agatha Christie.
This is a special instalment of Scientists with Cool Names: this particular scientist is still alive!
Dr. Erasmus Smit is New Zealand's only clinical virologist. Which, as you can imagine, has kept him pretty busy in 2020. He's on the COVID-19 Technical Advisory Group for the Ministry of Health, in charge of the testing for Covid-19 in the country.
He apparently goes by “Ras”.
Please note this is a different “Erasmus Smit” than the South African pastor from the early 1800s, seen below. Ras is way cooler. You can tell this Erasmus barely went by “Erasmus”, let alone “Ras”.
