The magazine for alumni and friends of the University of Glasgow Issue 48 June 2010 Avenue Keep calm and carry on 12 From piling sandbags to signing up: how the University has coped during wartime How to contact Avenue 01 Editorial Strategy Committee: Executive Editor: Susan Stewart Production Editor: Sarah Lincoln University of Glasgow Cathy Bell, Alan Johnston, Welcome Alan Macfarlane, Emily Howie Contact details are listed below. Welcome to the latest edition of Avenue, our www.glasgow.ac.uk All addresses are University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ. twice-yearly magazine for alumni and friends Alumni news: Development & Alumni Office, of the University. 2 The Square • In the top 1% of the world’s universities according to the Times Higher tel: +44 (0)141 330 4951 The first few months of the new decade have been extremely busy email: [email protected] and forward-looking for the University. World Rankings 2009. Giving to Glasgow: Development & Alumni Office, 2 The Square On the research front, for example, our scientists have secured funding tel: +44 (0)141 330 4951 email: [email protected] to further investigate diseases such as African sleeping sickness and • Supporting innovative research that changes people’s lives for the Hodgkin’s lymphoma, while our team of health professionals at the Changes of address better, with almost 70% of all Glasgow’s research rated as world- and obituaries: University's Paul O’Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre won Best Development & Alumni Office, Cancer Team at the Scottish Health Awards. You can read about these leading or internationally excellent by the latest Research Assessment 2 The Square recent successes and more in the news section of this issue. tel: +44 (0)141 330 7146 Exercise. email: [email protected] Much of what we do at the University looks towards creating a brighter tomorrow. However, in our cover story Letters to the Editor: Corporate Communications, Keep calm and carry on, on pages 12–14, we go back in time and offer a fascinating insight into how University staff and students adapted during the era of conflict that World Wars I and II brought. • Creating an international community by welcoming students from 1 The Square tel: +44 (0)141 330 4919 email: [email protected] more than 120 countries across the globe. You may have noticed in recent issues that a growing number of international alumni events have been reported. © University of Glasgow 2010. Since becoming Principal, I have been fortunate enough to attend some of our global get-togethers and meet ISSN 0950-7167. with many of our alumni and friends. On pages 15–16 we delve deeper into the world of overseas events to • Providing a learning experience that students love – the 2010 Produced by: discover why the bond between the alma mater and alumni continues to be so strong. Over the next year we will Corporate Communications, University of Glasgow. be looking at ways to develop our international profile through overseas events. International Student Barometer ranks Glasgow 6th in the UK for Photography by the University student satisfaction, and the 2009 National Student Survey reports Photographic Unit. While the University is committed to people, we are also dedicated to the welfare of animals. At the University's Small Animal Hospital, our vets give their undivided medical attention to a constant influx of ill pets, brought from satisfaction levels of 90% among final-year students. Additional photography provided by Shutterstock, Development & miles around by their owners seeking the world-class treatment the hospital provides. We take you behind the Alumni Office, Hunterian Museum scenes of the £15m state-of-the art facility on pages 8–10. & Art Gallery, Archive Services, Dr Alina Mirza. I hope you enjoy reading this issue of Avenue, and continue to enjoy our various publications for many years to Printed by PCP Ltd on 50% come. As always, your interest and support is highly valued. recycled paper. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the University or the editors. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced without written permission from the Editorial Strategy Committee. Professor Anton Muscatelli The University of Glasgow, charity Principal and Vice-Chancellor number SC004401 Half-Yearly Contents Meeting of the General Council News Global get- Obituaries 02 Recent activities and 15 togethers 25 Deaths of members of the achievements The world of international General Council Saturday, 19 June 2010 alumni events Alumni are invited to join the Chancellor and Animal magic Exhibitions and Principal at the General 08 Behind the scenes at the Alumni news 29 events Council Half-Yearly Small Animal Hospital 17 Clubs, reunions and What’s on at the Hunterian Meeting in the Senate personal news Museum Room at 10.30am on Alumnus profile Saturday, 19 June 2010. 11 Dr Alina Mirza, founder Report to the of Heer Productions General Council Read the report of the last 22 Minutes from the Half- meeting on pages 22–23. Keep calm Yearly Meeting of the 12 and carry on General Council, including The University during the Principal’s report wartime 02 News News 03 Glasgow First female Regius Professor Trick of the light Rt Hon David Blunkett Business The University has appointed Professor Anna Dominiczak Scientists at the Universities of Glasgow, speaks at the University School in OBE as Regius Chair of Medicine – the first woman in the Bristol and Southampton have achieved University’s history to hold this particular Regius Professorship. the unimaginable by tying knots in light. This year’s Stevenson Lectures in world top 100 Reported in the latest edition of the Citizenship series concluded with Professor Dominiczak, Head of Cardiovascular & Medical journal Nature Physics, the feat was former Health, Education and Home The University of Glasgow Sciences and Director of the British Heart Foundation Glasgow achieved using special holograms Secretary, David Blunkett, delivering Business School has broken Cardiovascular Research Centre (BHF GCRC) at the University, that enabled the scientists to bend the inaugural Crick Memorial Lecture, into the prestigious Beyond has taken over the role from Professor John Reid and follows in and control light beams. given in memory of the late Professor Grey Pinstripes league table of the footsteps of iconic figures, including Joseph Black, Sir William Sir Bernard Crick. the top 100 business schools in Tennant Gairdner and Sir John McNee. Glasgow physicist Professor Miles the world. Placed at 71 in the list, Padgett, who led the experiment, which The lecture reflected on the themes the school was one of the highest- A Royal Warrant to approve Professor Dominiczak as Regius Chair of Medicine was signed was based on a theory developed by of democratic health and a healthy ranking UK institutions. both by the Queen and by Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, and the appointment Dr Mark Dennis of Bristol University, said: democracy in a talk entitled Active cements her position as a leading figure in academic medicine worldwide. Professor Dominiczak ‘We usually think of light as flowing Citizenship equals a healthy Beyond Grey Pinstripes spotlights said: ‘I am honoured to have been appointed to this position which has been held by highly in straight lines, but it can also be twisted, democracy: a healthy democracy innovative full-time MBA programmes esteemed individuals and has such a distinguished heritage.’ like a corkscrew, along its axis to create an equals the health of the nation. leading the way in the integration optical vortex. of issues concerning social and With 13 Regius Professorships, Glasgow has the highest number of these posts in the UK. Bernard Crick was a leading political environmental stewardship into the Other universities with Regius Chairs are Aberdeen, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford and ‘When you do this, the light waves at the axis cancel theorist who taught at the London curriculum. Those business schools St Andrews, as well as Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. each other out, resulting in the centre of the vortex having School of Economics, Sheffield, that make the list are recognised for a light intensity of zero – in other words there’s no light in Birkbeck (London) and Edinburgh. In preparing students for the reality of the middle, so if you were to shine the light beam on a flat surface, his later years he took a leading role in tomorrow’s markets by equipping it would appear as a doughnut-shaped ring of light. What we’ve been able to do is tie these organising and promoting the Stevenson them with the social, environmental, Making connections with India vortices together using specially designed holograms based on mathematical knot theory to Lectures at Glasgow. He was the visiting ethical and economic perspectives guide and control the vortices.’ Stevenson professor in 2006–7, having needed for business success in a At a recent ceremony in London, the University signed been presented with an honorary degree competitive and fast-changing world. agreements to establish closer educational connections Professor Padgett added: ‘The sophisticated hologram design required for the experimental at Glasgow for services to the study of with two universities in India. demonstration of the knotted light shows advanced optical control, which undoubtedly can be politics and citizenship. The University of Glasgow Business used in future laser devices.’ Potential applications include precision laser technology, traffic School is accredited by the Memorandums of Understanding were signed between speed radar equipment and laser instruments to measure height. As a student at Sheffield University Association to Advance Collegiate Glasgow and the Indian Institute of Science Education David Blunkett was taught by Bernard Schools of Business (AACSB Research, Pune, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar, Knotted vortices were first studied by Lord Kelvin in 1867 during his research into atoms.