28 November 2005
Academics retire after more than 100 years service
More than a century of academic endeavour will be celebrated at the University of Dundee today (Monday 28 November 2005) when three long serving members of staff at the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences mark their retiral.
Professor Sandy Fitzgerald, Harris Professor of Physics and former Head of the Electronic Engineering and Physics Division, Dr Robin Vaughan, former director of the Centre for Remote Sensing and Environmental Monitoring and lecturer Dr David Thompson have worked for the university for a grand combined total of 115 years.
Today they will be guests of honour at a retiral lunch held in the University's River Rooms in the Tower Building where they will be presented with gifts by Professor Michael Davies, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.
Professor Davies said, "Professor Fitzgerald, Dr Vaughan and Dr Thomson have each contributed greatly to physics and electronic engineering at the University of Dundee since its foundation.
"They all joined at around the same time and have witnessed many changes over the years. They will be sorely missed and I wish them all well in their retirement."
Professor Fitzgerald joined the university in 1968 as a lecturer. A graduate of Queens College Dundee he completed his PhD at Cambridge University before heading to the United States and a spell at the University of California, Berkeley.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Institute of Physics and the Royal Microscopical Society, Professor Fitzgerald has published more than 200 scientific papers and spoken at numerous seminars and conferences.
During his distinguished career he has secured a number of research firsts in particular in the area of electron microscopy. He was awarded a DSc from Dundee in 1990 and is a former head of the Electronic Engineering and Physics Division.
Dr Robin Vaughan has been a member of the academic staff at Dundee for 40 years. A first class honours graduate in physics from Nottingham University Dr Vaughan gained his PhD from the same institution in 1964 and continued to work there as a research fellow.
The following year he moved north to Dundee to take up a post lecturing in physics. In 1991 he was appointed senior lecturer in the Electronic Engineering and Physics Division.
Elected a Fellow of the Remote Sensing Society in 1995 Dr Vaughan has held a number of posts at the university including reader in remote sensing and director of the Centre for Remote Sensing and Environmental Monitoring. Since 2003 he has also been a senior teaching fellow and a senior research fellow.
In 2001 Dr Vaughan, who has published numerous books and papers, won the Remote Sensing Society Gold Medal for exceptional services to Remote Sensing. He has also served as honorary general secretary and vice president of the Remote Sensing Society and sits on the editorial board of the International Journal of Remote Sensing.
Dr David Thomson, a lecturer within the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, joined the University of Dundee 37 years ago.
A graduate of Queen's University in Belfast he moved to Scotland to take up a post-graduate apprenticeship with the Scottish Electrical Training Scheme before working for the design department of Bruce Peebles in Edinburgh.
In 1968 he took up a lecturing post at the University of Dundee where he also completed his PhD. During his career at the university Dr Thompson co-founded the Power Systems Engineering and Management Group and ran an MSc in power engineering for many years. He also acted as advisor of studies and admissions tutor for Electrical Engineering. More recently his work has helped lay the foundations for developments in renewable energy.
For more information contact:
Hilary McNally
Press Office
Tel: 01382 344021,
Email: h.mcnally@dundee.ac.uk | 
