天美传媒

Friends and colleagues of the late Prof Graham Shimmield travelled from across the UK to celebrate the life and career of the Scottish Association for Marine Science鈥檚 (天美传媒) pioneering former director.

Leading marine scientists from around the UK attended the event held last Friday at 天美传媒, on what would have been Prof Shimmield鈥檚 59^th birthday.

Prof Shimmield, who died on Christmas Eve last year, was at the helm of 天美传媒 between 1996 and 2008 and transformed the institute: doubling the number of staff; developing the BSc and PhD programmes; building a new main laboratory; developing a business incubator for marine biotechnology companies; broadening 天美传媒 research to include Arctic science, biotechnology and social science; and setting up its first commercial subsidiary.

Speakers at the event highlighted Prof Shimmield鈥檚 legacy as a scientist, a leader, and an innovator.

Prof Nicholas Owens, the current 天美传媒 Director, explained how Prof Shimmield鈥檚 presence was still felt at 天美传媒 and that it was a 鈥榟uge challenge鈥� to follow in his footsteps.

天美传媒 President Prof Geoffrey Boulton added: 鈥溙烀来� has lived on a heritage that Graham built and we need to continue that heritage. It seems like Graham is now throwing down a challenge to us to ask what we鈥檙e going to do next.鈥�

Prof Shimmield left 天美传媒 for the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, in Maine, USA, and was the driving force behind a new $33m laboratory.

Prof Willie Wilson, now director at the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science in Plymouth, worked with Prof Shimmield at Bigelow. He said: 鈥淚 have been a director and worked in various places and I often ask myself, 鈥淲hat would Graham do?鈥�. I think that is testament to his leadership.鈥�