{"id":6789,"date":"2026-05-21T17:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/?p=6789"},"modified":"2026-05-21T17:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:01:18","slug":"heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The stories of inspiring individuals with a connection to the University were recently celebrated in an exhibition where the work of artists, designers and writers sat alongside archive material. Some of the items are reproduced here to remind us how remembering past achievements and celebrating the contribution of individuals can bring us together as a community, encourage us to be creative and inspire us to strive to make a difference, however small, ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson and Patrick Geddes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

D’Arcy Thompson was Professor of Natural History at University College Dundee from 1884 to 1917. He is best known as the author of\u00a0On Growth and Form<\/em>, a hugely influential book which described the mathematical beauty of nature and the mathematical basis of the forms of animals and plants. It pioneered the field of mathematical biology\u00a0and\u00a0had a profound impact on many other\u00a0subjects\u00a0including art, architecture, anthropology, geography,\u00a0cybernetics\u00a0and systems theory. Geddes\u00a0was Professor of Botany at University College Dundee and\u00a0had an impact as a biologist,\u202fsociologist,\u202fgeographer\u00a0and pioneering town planner.\u00a0Known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and sociology, his works\u00a0contain\u00a0one of the earliest examples of the ‘think globally, act locally’ concept. Thompson and Geddes inspired Nicholas Wade to create these anaglyphs \u2013 pictures printed in colours that match the red\/cyan viewers. Anaglyphs are simple stereoscopes which present different stimuli to each eye; closing one eye and then the other will result in seeing the left and right eye images separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Anaglyph inspired by D’Arcy Thompson created by Nicholas Wade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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D’Arcy Thompson’s museum (University Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Anaglyph inspired by Patrick Geddes created by Nicholas Wade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Notebook created by one of Geddes’ students during his lectures (University Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Edward Waymouth Reid<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waymouth\u00a0Reid\u00a0was\u00a0a pioneer\u00a0who amongst other things\u00a0experimented with early\u00a0x-rays\u00a0less than a year after their discovery by Rontgen and doing so caused himself some not insignificant physical harm. Under the alias Herr\u00a0Doktor\u00a0Bimstein Pumpduluder,\u00a0Reid\u00a0used his laboratory at University College to make sweets, including rock,\u00a0to be sold in the Dundee Student’s Union to raise money for the College’s playing field fund. His bold, unorthodox experimentations and playfulness inspired Louise Ritchie and Suzanne Scott to experiment themselves and create their own sweets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The\u00a0Pumpduluder\u2019s\u00a0Confiserie\u202f<\/em>\u00a0by Louise Ritchie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Reid’s brochure selling his rock (University Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pumpduluder\u00a0Rock – Celebration Puzzle Tin\u202f<\/em>\u00a0Suzanne Scott’s sweets and tin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Robert Watson-Watt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watson-Watt, ‘the father of radar’ attended University College Dundee graduating with a BSc in engineering in 1912 and became an assistant to Professor William Peddie, Chair of Physics,\u00a0who\u202fencouraged\u00a0him\u00a0to study radio.\u00a0He joined the Met Office during the First World War where he began his experiments which would\u00a0culminate in\u00a0the invention of radar.\u00a0On\u00a0the\u00a0outbreak\u00a0of\u00a0war in September 1939 Watson-Watt housed\u00a0nearly 200\u00a0government researchers\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0University and the\u00a0Scrymgeour\u00a0Building (then the Dundee Training College) to\u00a0look at the application of radar in a war setting. Poet Andy Jackson created a poem inspired by Watson-Watt\u00a0showing the\u00a0way\u00a0radar\u00a0operates; a\u00a0signal is\u00a0transmitted using waves\u00a0of electromagnetism,\u00a0and\u00a0objects\u00a0in the field of waves\u00a0reflect a\u00a0signal back towards\u00a0a receiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Robert Watson-Watt (University Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Radar <\/em>by Andy Jackson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Richard Charles Alexander<\/strong> and Alexander David Peacock<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander studied medicine at Edinburgh University\u00a0and his\u00a0service in\u00a0the\u00a0war\u00a0was\u00a0an early\u00a0and\u00a0tough lesson in practical surgery.\u00a0This experience helped secure\u00a0his\u00a0appointment\u00a0in 1921\u00a0as\u00a0visiting surgeon at Dundee Royal Infirmary and lecturer in clinical surgery at the University College Dundee. He became Professor of Surgery in 1935. He was awarded a CBE for his contribution to emergency medical services during the Second World War.\u00a0\u00a0Nicola Moss created a mixed media response Alexander’s war notebooks\u00a0and\u00a0records\u00a0of injuries, progression of diseases,\u00a0and\u00a0treatments\u00a0relating to the men he examined during this\u00a0time.\u00a0Peacock\u00a0was Professor of Natural History at University College Dundee from 1926 to 1956. During the First World War he had carried out important research on trench fever and its transmission by lice which\u00a0allowed\u00a0the Royal Army Medical Corps to\u00a0develop\u00a0effective methods of control. He was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for this work in 1927. In\u202fDundee\u202fhe was involved deeply with the local Polish community and was president of the city’s Polish Society.\u00a0Poet Nikki Robson was\u00a0drawn to the idea that this\u00a0peace-time civilian\u00a0identified\u00a0a war within a war on\u00a0an\u00a0almost unseen enemy, that this\u00a0steered the work of the Royal\u00a0Army Medical\u00a0Corps\u00a0in disinfestation\u00a0and\u00a0that it alleviated\u00a0significant discomfort\u00a0and\u00a0disease in the trenches.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reflections on the archive of Richard Charles Alexander <\/em>by Nicola Moss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Louse Problem<\/em> by Nikki Robson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Items from the Archives relating to Alexander and Peacock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We will highlight more individuals from the exhibition soon, in the meantime if you want any further information contact the Archives: archives@dundee.ac.uk or visit the website www.dundee.ac.uk\/archives <\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The stories of inspiring individuals with a connection to the University were recently celebrated in an exhibition where the work of artists, designers and writers sat alongside archive material. Some of the items are reproduced here to remind us how remembering past achievements and celebrating the contribution of individuals can bring us together as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":550,"featured_media":6791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/550"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6806,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6789\/revisions\/6806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}