Principal's Column

Ambitious new buildings and state of the art facilities are vital for ensuring Dundee's future success. But the greatest assets of the university are its staff and students. Talking about the achievements of staff and students collectively often fails to do justice to the diverse and very personal contributions of individuals. This Contact brings you just some of the recent achievements of staff and students in scholarship, art and sport. News of all these successes reached me in just one seven day period - they speak most powerfully for themselves.

For their leading contributions to forensic anthropology, enterprise management, immunology, geography and the genetics of skin disease, the following women and men from the University received fellowships from the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Professors Sue Black; Jane Bower who takes the Chair of Enterprise Management from April; Doreen Cantrell; Allan Findlay and Irwin McLean. They bring the number of University of Dundee RSE fellows to 63.

In the arts, Louise Scullion was awarded a coveted Creative Scotland Award by the Scottish Arts Council - one of ten awards of £30,000 each made to Scotland's leading artists. Simon Reekie, who graduated last year from DJCAD won a prestigious Fulbright postgraduate scholarship worth $45,000 - one of only six such scholarships in the UK and the first of our graduates to receive this honour. A handful of talented students came home with awards from this year's Royal Scottish Academy Student Exhibition: Mei Liong's painting won the Pillans and Waddies Prize of £1,000; Lynn Le Bouedec won the RSA Printmaking Prize of £400; Steve Burke's painting won the RSA Carnegie Travelling Scholarship; Anna King's landscape won the RSA Landscape Award and Kevin McPhee's painting won the DCA Data Solutions Award. Meanwhile DJCAD student Craig Wilson made his mark at the Scottish Student on Screen ceremony.

Talent is not confined to academic output and this year's Blues and Colours ceremony bristled with sporting talent - much of it at a national and international level. Award winners included athlete and medical student Morag McLarty who took gold representing Scotland at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Australia in November when she won the 1500m; Jenni Kilgallon who won silver medals in the 50m and 100m butterfly also at the Commonwealth Youth Games; Mairi Crawford who was named British Universities Ski Champion, a member of the Scottish Ski Team and represented Great Britain at the World University Games; fencer and physiology student Andrew Clarke who was selected for the Great Britain Senior Fencing Team and golfer and dental student Gemma Webster who has represented Scotland in the Home Nations Championship and played in the European Girls Team Championships.

Finally proving the importance of talk as well as action - the expanding mooting club at the university’s department of law have put their powers of persuasion to excellent effect by attracting the most senior member of the Scottish judiciary, Lady Cosgrove, to judge the final of their mooting competition at the end of March. This follows recent successes which have already taken the Dundee mooters to the finals of the Scottish national competition, the Alexander Stone and at a UK level, the UK Environmental Law Association.

So when you hear the tidy and almost colourless phrase, "the most important assets of the university are its staff and students" - remember behind it are compelling personal stories of commitment, creativity and vitality - and all this in just seven days...

Alan Langlands
April 2005