9 March 2007

Present-day pioneers follow in footsteps of giants

Two professors from the University of Dundee, Prof Malcolm Horner and Prof Geoffrey Gadd, have been elected new Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE).

Professor Geoff Gadd in the College of Life Sciences is an international leader in the field of metals and microorganisms and is considered a world pioneer of the new field of geomicrobiology. He has carried out pioneering research in this area with bacteria and fungi over many years, not only with the aim of understanding microbial roles in metal and mineral transformations, and element cycling, but also how these processes can be harnessed and used for the treatment of pollution. Indeed, some current research is investigating microbial treatment of toxic metals and radionuclides such as uranium. He is currently Head of the Division of Environmental and Applied Biology in the College of Life Sciences, and has just finished a three-year term as President of the British Mycological Society. He is also an elected Fellow of the Linnean Society, the Institute of Biology and the American Academy of Microbiology; and has received several other honours for his research.

Professor Horner leads the Construction Management Research Unit (CMRU) at the University of Dundee which is part of the Grade 5A rated Division of Civil Engineering. He has successfully executed research projects to a value of some £5m, attracting funding from research councils and from industry in roughly equal measure. Professor Horner is Chairman of Whole Life Consultants Ltd, a University spin out company set up to commercialise his research, Chairman of Scottish Enterprise Tayside, and Chairman of the Management Board of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Scotland.

An independent, educational charity, one of the key strengths of the RSE is its multidisciplinary make-up, with 1400 experts of national and international standing representing excellence across the subject disciplines. The RSE's Fellowship is further strengthened by the election of overseas-based experts including: ecological scientist, Ilkka Hanski; distinguished mathematician, Nicolai Krylov; and experimental pathologist, Ole Laerum. Within the UK, new Fellows include: entrepreneurs, Simon Best and John Brown; environmental change expert, Michael Bird; authority on psychiatric disorders, Douglas Blackwood; manager & scientist, Julie Fitzpatrick; National Trust for Scotland President, the Earl of Dalkeith; pioneer of nanometrology (the ability to measure and characterise molecules), Duncan Graham; speech science expert, William Hardcastle; eminent historian, James Hunter; virus and leukaemia/lymphoma expert, Ruth Jarrett; and leading industrialist and civil engineer, Gordon Masterton.

President of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Sir Michael Atiyah, OM, FRS, PRSE, HonFREng, HonFMedSci, Hon FFA said:

I am delighted to be able to welcome such an outstanding array of new Fellows to the Society.

Conferring the accolade of Fellowship on individuals recognised as amongst the best minds in Scotland and around the world, is the beginning, not the end, of the Society's purpose. The collective expertise and experience of the Fellowship enables the RSE to uphold its Royal Charter of 1783 for the "advancement of learning and useful knowledge" and deliver meaningful, public-benefit activities today.

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