John R. Philip


John Robert Philip AO FAA FRS was an Australian soil physicist and hydrologist, internationally recognised for his contributions to the understanding of movement of water, energy and gases. While he never performed his own experimental work, he was recognised for his skills in mathematics that could be used to explain physical processes and solve real world problems.
His interests were not limited to Environmental mechanics and things mathematical, but included a keen interest in the arts. He was a published poet and a panellist on the Sulman Prize for Architecture. His poetry appears in anthologies edited by Judith Wright and in The Oxford Book of Australian Verse.

Education and positions

He was a recipient of a Scholarship for Scotch College, Melbourne, where he matriculated at age thirteen. He studied for his Bachelor of Civil Engineering, University of Melbourne.
The major and most recognised area of Philip's research was his work on the theory of infiltration. He derived the theory for one dimensional infiltration and developed equations which described the infiltration on both a short term and long term scale, with the revelation that when ponded infiltration in uniform soils occurs, the flow will approach the saturated hydraulic conductivity:
where S is sorptivity and A is the steady-state infiltration rate.
Other areas of research include:
Philip, J.R. "Theory of infiltration.". Advances in Hydroscience. v. 5, p. 215–296. According to Philip, this is "...a review which gives a concentrated, connected account of a program of work reported in some 30 papers over the period 1954–1968."