The words, uttered in Edinburgh, are those of one of Scotland's most powerful media moguls. A man who, a few years ago, might have gone down as a dyed-in-the-wool Dundee basher. Changed times indeed... but then, it has to be said, changed city.

For Dundee is reinventing itself... and the process is beginning to make itself felt even in Scotland's Central Belt. After a history of switching fortunes which has seen the rise and fall of whaling, jam and jute, the city has embarked on a new chapter. The main themes are life sciences and the arts, broad themes which encompass many sub plots and stories at every level from providing local jobs to leading the international race for a cure for cancer.

The University, and its faculty of art and design Duncan of Jordanstone College, are playing a leading role but it has also been a conscious decision at city level to tap the talent of its many graduates. After all it's not for nothing that Dundee has become known as "UniverCity", with more academics per head of population than anywhere else in Scotland. Now, after that Caird Hall ceremony, many graduates are staying on, taking up key roles in initiatives to rebuild the city or using the range of schemes and facilities designed in partnerships with Scottish Enterprise Tayside and Dundee City Council, to help them start small businesses in everything from computer technology to crafts.

Dundee's confidence and vision is reawakening. And while, like any city, it has problems to tackle, the mood is pragmatic - to address those problems by capitalising on the strengths the place undoubtedly has - strengths which Dundee's characteristic self effacing manner has often left buried.

The sceptic, tempted to dismiss the above as hype, only needs pause for a moment to consider a list of most recent projects:

• £5 million Science Centre to open in the year 2000
  
• £8.5 million arts centre, Dundee Contemporary Arts, opening in March 1999
  
• £200 million shopping centre on the site of the Overgate, opening in Spring 2000
  
• £3.3 million in projects for Dundee Rep Theatre to refurbish and create a new full time company of 14 actors
  
• £4.6 million contemporary dance centre to seat 200
  
• £13 million Wellcome Trust Building recently completed on campus to house 250 scientists researching the fundamental causes of diseases
  
• £1 million Medipark providing a base for science and medical companies and a potential 600 jobs
  
• £1 million Incubator Units for spin out science companies and graduates to take their first steps into business

Dundee's renaissance could hardly come at a more opportune time for Scotland itself is reawakening. With a new devolved Scottish Parliament about to take power the mood is optimistic and the stage set for greater involvement of cities such as Dundee in that power process. Could the City of Discovery be the future base for a new Scottish department of health or education or science?

Lord Provost Mervyn Rolfe, himself a graduate of the University (MEd1995), and one of the prime movers in the Dundee renaissance believes it could: "Dundee is earning a powerful reputation as a centre of excellence in the fields of health education and life sciences.

Between our two universities, the Scottish Crop Research Institute and Ninewells, our city is a very significant centre of Scottish scientific and medical research and as such would make an ideal site for any of the above devolved departments.."

Science Centre Work is about to begin on Dundee's key millennium project, the Science Centre sited on the former railway goods yard south of the Nethergate and close to Dundee Contemporary Arts with which it will share a tree-fringed piazza. Architect of the prism-style "cathedral of science" is Duncan of Jordanstone graduate Alan Robertson (BArch 1980) pictured left. A partner in Edinburgh-based company Merrylees & Robertson, who won the design contract following an international competition, Alan is enjoying the challenge of creating a landmark structure in his native city. His model shows the dramatic sloping front facing the Tay and featuring a series of long glass panels built into a skin of smooth metal with a glazed apex to make the most effective use of the superb north east light. Professor Ian Stevenson (also pictured) of the University's department of pharmacology and chairman of the Dundee Science Centre, believes it will prove an enormous boost to the City. The centre will focus on current world class research in the city, particularly in the life sciences, as well as Dundee's history of discoveries. Exhibitions will concentrate on three main themes - the brain, the body and plants and soil, with some of the world renowned University research featuring strongly. The pitch, however will be largely towards young people, with interactive exhibits and a strong outreach programme for schools.	dca Situated virtually on the doorstep of the University at the Nethergate, Dundee Contemporary Arts will offer not just some of the most exciting and extensive contemporary galleries in the country, but also a two screen cinema, print studio and, for the professional, a university facility equipped with all the latest technology known as the Visual Research Centre. The building itself is a style statement as well as an anchor for Dundee's new cultural quarter in that area of the city. Its curved glass prow on the Nethergate captures the eye and the imaginative use of light and glazing continues inside with fabulous views over the Tay revealed to cinema audiences on the sliding away of a screen at interval time. "We are very much hoping that young graduates, especially those from Duncan of Jordanstone College, will be encouraged to stay on in Dundee to pursue their particular form of art. The superb state-of-the-art production facilities available in the new dca will enable some of our talented young artists to begin their creative careers here in the City," said Professor Ian Howard. For those who have already gone, the opening of dca on 20 March, offers a great opportunity to return and see how Dundee has reinvented itself.
Steve Carter Dundee's transformed city centre was voted the most-improved shopping environment in the UK and Ireland in a major national competition. It was graduate Steve Carter who accepted the prize for the City of Discovery. First impressions count, they say, and it would be hard to overstate the impact Dundee's Seagate bus station made on teenager Steve Carter in 1973. "Like arriving in Hell," is one of his milder comments, and surely few who recall the station's prison-yard bleakness and dishwater-weak tea of 25 years ago would feel tempted to disagree. On that occasion, London-born Steve was glad to be just passing through. Two years later, however, he was back in the city as a civil engineering student. Second time around, things were much better. "I remember arriving at the train station," Steve recalls, "and the driver of the minibus to the University was [then-rector] Clement Freud!" Steve spent four happy years in Dundee, before heading south once more after graduating BSc (Hons) in 1979. But the city of Discovery can exert a powerful pull on its adopted sons and daughters, as Steve was to discover in January 1988. Fate stepped in - in the form of a chance encounter with Lorna, a native Dundonian and old friend from his student days. Before the year was out, what had started out as a simple skiing holiday had led to the altar - and plans to start married life in Dundee. Perhaps surprisingly, given the intensity of his first encounter with the city, Steve cites without irony 'quality of life' as the couple's prime reason for choosing the Tay over the Thames. But then, the physical character of Dundee has altered somewhat in recent years. And as manager of Scottish Enterprise Tayside's area development team and chair of the Dundee City Centre Environment Group, Steve has been a leading player in many of the most significant changes. His guiding hand has helped shape a number of important Dundee Partnership projects to help regenerate the city, improving that elusive quality of life in areas as diverse as outlying housing estates and the approach roads into the city. The city centre in particular has blossomed. In 1998 Dundee was named overall winner of the British Council of Shopping Centres environmental awards - which Steve received from regeneration minister Richard Caborn at a lavish ceremony in Birmingham International Conference Centre. Mind you, it's debatable whether the award was Steve's number one highlight of last year. That honour might just go to the Dundee Partnership's facelift of a certain ill-remembered landmark - Seagate bus station! film Dundee University Rector TV personality Tony Slattery lent his support to Lord Provost Mervyn Rolfe at the launch of the Film Dundee initiative to encourage film makers to consider the City of Discovery as a backdrop for silver screen projects. Already the project has borne fruit, with a San Francisco film maker focusing on the city's history of women and story telling as a film festival entry.	BioDundee Catherine Christie (formerly Shaw MA 1990) is the marketing co-ordinator for BioDundee, an award-winning initiative to promote the growth of the biotechnology industry in Dundee. Launched last year, the campaign seeks to spread the word about Dundee's expertise in this burgeoning sector and make sure the city is well placed to attract biotechnology companies and investment as well as to aid local spin-off development from university research. Its approach, to adopt a strong human element by focusing on leading biomedical scientists at the University -Professor David Lane, Professor Sir Philip Cohen, Professor Sir Alfred Cuschieri and Professor Roland Wolf, has paid off. In December BioDundee won an award for excellence in communication run by a national PR magazine. Catherine, who has steered the campaign through its first year, has firm University roots. She graduated in philosophy then completed a post graduate diploma in logic, text and information technology the following year. After obtaining the Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma and a stint in an advertising agency in Glasgow she took a post with a Volvo car dealer group before returning to Dundee in 1994. Since then she has worked on a variety of projects including the City of Discovery Campaign and more recently in Dundee City Council's business development section as part of the inward investment and trade development team. As we went to press Catherine was off on maternity leave, awaiting the arrival of her first child. Meanwhile another "biobaby" with a University connection helped launch the website. Baby Ben Johnstone, son of science student John, was pictured in the press with the new homepage at http://www.biodundee.co.uk Louise McClement Chartered accountant Louise McClement (BAcc1994) was recently appointed inward investment assistant at Scottish Enterprise Tayside on a year's secondment from Dundee-based practice Henderson Loggie. In her new post Louise will be helping promote Tayside's merits as a business location to companies and organisations throughout the UK and overseas. £200 million shopping centre An artist's impression of the stylish curvaceous glass Overgate providing a new shopping experience and a stunning setting for St Mary's Church and square. The centre, which is being developed by Australian company Lend Lease, includes a vast Debenhams store and will bring many new retail names to Dundee. Dundee Book Prize The first winner of the £6,000 Dundee Book Prize is expected to reach bookshops later this year. The prize - a joint initiative of the University and the City of Discovery Campaign - proved a huge success, drawing over 80 full length manuscripts based in Dundee. Judges, Liz Lochhead, Dr David Robb of the department of English and Marion Sinclair of Polygon, had a hard job reading their way through the mountain of submissions which covered genres from historical "jute-rippers" to angst ridden contemporary "lit-fic". The winner was yet to be announced as we went to press.
dundee by design Graduate Alistair Main (MSc 95 and MBA 1997) is responsible for Dundee by Design (dbd) - an initiative launched last year to build on the University's considerable reputation in this field and encourage more companies to understand that good design is good business. The initiative's first major success came in December with the announcement of a £1.2 million EU grant to develop an integrated manufacturing centre to help companies incorporate design into their manufacturing process. The facility will be based within the new Dundee Contemporary Arts building. As part of the dbd programme, Alistair has been managing a series of seminars on design in business, aimed at representatives up to board room level. Speakers have included top companies such as Fitch, Crabtree Hall and Adobe Systems. He is keen to hear from any alumni who may be willing to participate in the programme for 1999. Following a successful career in pioneering hi-tech product development within the European broadcast television technology scene in the mid-nineties, Alistair broadened his horizons by returning to the University to study for the degrees of Master of Science in electrical power engineering and management, and Master of Business Administration. Winning the course medal for the MSc and obtaining an MA with distinction were, he says, two of the proudest achievements of his career.