 In 1919 , Oliphant began studying at the University of Adelaide . At first he was interested in a career in medicine , but later in the year Kerr Grant , the physics professor , offered him a cadetship in the Physics Department . It paid 10 shillings a week ( equivalent to AUD $ 34 in 2010 ) , the same amount that Oliphant received for working at the State Library , but it allowed him to take any university course that did not conflict with his work for the department . He received his Bachelor of Science ( BSc ) degree in 1921 and then did honours the following year , supervised by Kerr Grant . Roy Burdon , who acted as head of the department when Kerr went on sabbatical in 1925 , worked with Oliphant to produce two papers in 1927 on the properties of mercury , " The Problem of the Surface Tension of Mercury and the Action of Aqueous Solutions on a Mercury Surface " and " Absorption of Gases on the Surface of Mercury " . Oliphant later recalled that Burdon taught him " the extraordinary exhilaration there was in even minor discoveries in the field of physics " . 
