THE SUSS-EX CLUB NEWSLETTER No. 41  November 2017        

 

This issue contains

Christmas Party summary,

Other future events,

Past event,

Anybook.biz – a recommendation by a member,

Research contributions by retired staff,

Obituaries,

Christmas party details.

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Party

 

 

 

 

The annual Christmas party for members of USPAS and Suss-Ex will be on Thursday 14 December, from 12.30 p.m. - 2.30 p.m., in the Terrace Room on the 3rd floor of Bramber House (former Refectory).   As usual, guests will be welcome.  More details, and a booking form, are at the end of this Newsletter.  Please note that there is a closing date for booking.

 

 

 

 

Other future events

 

 

 

 

Thursday 22 February, afternoon       ‘Private art store tour’ at the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, £7 per person, with option of tea afterwards (extra).  Details and booking/payment later.

 

 

Other possible events for the first half of next year are noted below.  Details will be announced in due course. 

Spring              Meeting on campus, on a medical topic

April                Back stage at Glyndebourne

Early summer  British Airways i360

 

 

 

Past event

 

 

 

A nature walk led by David Streeter took place on Wednesday 24 May.  The 15 places available were soon taken up and organiser Charles Goldie had to operate a wait-list, but in the end all enquirers were accommodated. The meeting point was easy to find, the weather was good, and David and the orchids together gave participants an excellent afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

Anybook.biz

 

 

 

 

A member writes :

 

I had a large number of academic books which eventually had to go before my study was totally overwhelmed;  I’m sure I am not alone in having to downsize, and others will be wondering how best to do this. I found the solution at http://anybook.biz/  They specialise in reselling books discarded by university libraries, but they also deal with individuals. They provide boxes if required and labels for the boxes, and arrange for a carrier to collect them. There is no charge for this service and the donor can nominate any library to be the recipient of any profits.

 

 

 

 

Research contributions by retired staff

 

 

 

Jeff Leigh and Alan Roche (2016) Women and chemistry in Regency England: new light on the Marcet Circle, Ambix, 63, 28-45.

 

Jeff Leigh (2017) The changing content of Conversations on Chemistry as a snapshot of the development of chemical science, Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, 42 (1), 7-28.

 

John F. Nixon (2017)    Robert Neville Haszeldine, FRS, FRSC (3 May 1925 -13 October 2016), Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, 197, A1-A2.

 

 

Obituaries

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROFESSOR GEOFFREY OLDHAM, CBE (17 February 1929 –1 October 2017)

 

Professor Geoffrey Oldham, known to all as ‘Geoff’, died on 1 October aged 88.  He was one of the founders of the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) in 1966, along with Chris Freeman and Jackie Fuller. He served as Deputy Director until 1982, then becoming Director until his retirement in 1992. Through those 26 years, and then for nearly 25 more in supposed ‘retirement’, he focused his considerable professional energies on policy issues concerned with the roles of science and technology in the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

 

Geoff took a roundabout route to arrive at SPRU. In the early 1950s he studied geology and geophysics at the University of Reading, followed by a PhD in geophysics at the University of Toronto. He moved on to senior positions as a geophysicist with Standard Oil of California. A sequence of events in the early 1960s gradually shaped a radical change in his career direction when a fellowship opportunity enabled him to engage in a study of the development of science and technology in China and more widely in other Asian countries. In preparation he undertook intensive Chinese language training in London and Hong Kong. Geoff’s research focus remained in science and technology policy in the developing world throughout his career. Secondment to the Scientific Affairs Directorate of the OECD in 1965-66 brought him into contact with Chris Freeman and the emerging ideas about setting up SPRU at the University of Sussex.

 

When he took up his position as Deputy Director of the new institute in 1966, Geoff pushed ahead with developing policy research about science and technology in developing country contexts. He secured a large five-year programme grant from the Ford Foundation that acted as a core around which smaller and shorter project funding was developed. He also established a small team of ‘China watchers’ seeking to squeeze meaning out of the mysteries of published information about science and technology in China during the Cultural Revolution. Like Chris Freeman, he also brought to SPRU research an intense concern about its ‘impact’ and was anxious that it should make a tangible difference in the world, including in Third World countries.

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In contrast to prevailing practices which relied mainly on international transfer of technology, know-how and scientific understanding from the rich countries, Geoff believed that much greater emphasis should be placed on ways of rapidly enhancing poor countries’ capacities to select, acquire and create their own technologies, know-how and science, and that SPRU’s impact should be about strengthening the capabilities of poor countries to analyse their own S&T policy problems and to generate and implement their own policy solutions.

 

During his years as Deputy Director, Geoff contributed directly to the setting up of the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC), having met the President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in 1969.  A former President of the IDRC recently noted:  “It is a virtual certainty that there would never have been an IDRC without Geoff Oldham”. In 1970 Geoff was appointed Associate Director for a new IDRC programme focusing on science and technology policy research, which he himself had persuaded the IDRC to include in their work programme.  However, he continued part-time in his role as Deputy Director of SPRU.

 

Geoff resigned from IDRC in 1980 and took over as Director of SPRU in 1982 at a time when there were a number of challenges, both internal and external. His directorship ended ten years later in 1992, by which time SPRU’s new graduate programmes had ensured continuity of income to balance the grant-based funding of most of its research. New research directions had been developed, such as environmental sustainability, and SPRU was awarded the highest rating (5) in the Research Assessment Exercise carried out by HEFCE in 1992.  Geoff’s wider contributions had already been recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours of 1990 by an award of the CBE for services to science.

 

After stepping down as SPRU Director Geoff continued to participate in a wide range of boards, trusts, advisory bodies and policy review missions, including several high-level UN bodies concerned with science, technology and development, and a period as Science Advisor to the President of IDRC (1992-96).

 

On a personal level Geoff was fair-minded, genial, sociable and full of enthusiasm for new ideas and new ventures.  He loved travel and even just before his last illness was jetting off to a meeting in a remote part of the world.  Back home he enjoyed watching cricket, played golf, and was an enthusiastic member of his local U3A (University of the Third Age) in Seaford.  He is survived by his devoted wife Brenda, two of his original four children, 10 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren, most of whom gathered from many parts of the world on 26 October to attend his funeral and celebrate his life.

 

Martin Bell and Jackie Fuller

 

 

 

 

 

           Christmas Party          

 

 

Terrace Room, 3rd Floor, Bramber House, 12.30–2.30pm, Thursday 14th December 2017

 

The Christmas buffet lunch for Suss-Ex Club members, their guests, and USPAS pensioners will take place on Thursday 14th December, from 12.30–2.30pm in the Terrace Room, 3rd Floor, Bramber House.  There is a lift to take you to the 3rd floor.

 

(USPAS members will receive a separate invitation via the USPAS Office and should reply to Tracey Llewellyn.)

 

If you are driving to the University and wish to collect a parking notice to display in your car so that you do not have to pay for and display a parking ticket, please collect the parking notice on your way in, from the Reception Desk in Sussex House.  You may park in any of the University car parks.

 

The cost of the party to Suss-Ex Club members is £7 per person (guests are welcome) and includes a buffet lunch, wine, soft drinks and tea or coffee.  The closing date for bookings is Thursday 30th November, but please book before then if possible.

 

Print and complete the booking form below and return it with a cheque made out to University of Sussex to:

Jackie Fuller, 21 Pelham Square, Brighton BN1 4ET.

If you wish to pay by debit/credit card, just indicate this on the form, which can then be sent to Jackie by email at jkfuller21@hotmail.com . You will then be contacted by telephone for the card details. Do not send credit/debit card details by email as this is not secure.

 

 

 

Booking form for Suss-Ex Club Christmas Party:

 Thursday 14th December 2017

 

Booking details (to be returned no later than 30th November 2017).  Please print clearly.

 

 

Name(s) ………………………………………………………………………………………........................................

 

 

Home address   …….…………………………………………………………………………………...........................

 

 

Telephone ………………………………...….  Email address ..……………………………….......................…

(Essential for credit/debit card bookings)

 

 

 

Please book  ……..  place/s at £7 each                    Total  £  ………

 

 

Payment details

 

I enclose a cheque for £………….....................................…….. (payable to University of Sussex).

 

Or

 

I wish to pay £.................................................. by debit/credit card and understand that I will be contacted by telephone for the card details.

 

I do/do not have dietary restrictions.  If yes, give details (e.g. vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, no dairy etc) .................................................................................................................................................

 

Please print and return this form to: Jackie Fuller, 21 Pelham Square, Brighton BN1 4ET  or if paying by credit/debit card the form can be sent to Jackie by email at: jkfuller21@hotmail.com  (NB The actual card details should not be sent by email as this is not secure.)