Laura (Fleming) Adam came to the University of Dundee in 1962 to work in the new and exciting research area of renal failure and its causes and consequences. Initially she was based at Maryfield Hospital and then at Ninewells working mainly with Dr W.K. Stewart and latterly with Dr I. Henderson. Her initial training was in chemistry/biochemistry and she developed a major interest in the problems of patients with renal impairment and subsequently renal failure. As the management of renal failure improved she became an authority on the complications patients suffered. In particular the team made major advances in the problems of handling of aluminium, iron and magnesium. These studies resulted in many practical improvements in long term care. Her interest in and research with erythropoietin resulted in major gains in patient physical and mental well-being in the long term.
Adam developed and stimulated many other interests for the University and the hospital. Particularly, she had a passion for medical history and was responsible for setting up a Medical History Museum committee mainly composed of renal services staff members. Using this committee she brought together artefacts from all the Departments in Ninewells and assiduously catalogued them for future display. She obtained funds for the purchase of glass cases and set up the display facilities in the medical school foyer, in the main hall of the Ninewells hospital and in the hospital library. Rotation of her well-documented displays occurred every few months and was a highlight of the calendar year. Adam was the First Honorary Curator of the Medical History Museum.
In addition, Adam developed a major interest in medical related art, organising special displays and encouraging the donation of art to enliven the walls and public areas of Ninewells hospital. Perhaps her most important contribution was the tapestry hanging in the medical school foyer, designed in collaboration with the Dundee & East of Scotland Embroiderers Guild and depicting the medicines and therapies of yesteryear. She also planned and executed various plantings in the grounds of several of the local hospitals. Her last work related to the life and times of Dundee doctor David Kinloch and his capture and imprisonment by the Spanish inquisition. The results were published in The Innes Review in 2002. Source: http://www.app.dundee.ac.uk/pressoffice/contact/2004/april/obituaries.html
Born in Port Ellen, Isle of Islay, Scotland.
Robertson completed his education at Dunoon Grammar School and Queen's College, Dundee. During his time at Queen's College, it transitioned to the University of Dundee, with Robertson being one of the first graduates in 1968. He was also one of the minority of graduates that year who decided to take a Dundee degree over a St. Andrews one.
Robertson's student life was extensive. He wrote a column for the student newspaper, 'Annasach' (launched 1967), which he used to promote the new University and encourage other students to take a University of Dundee degree over a St. Andrews degree.
Robertson was also highly involved in student protests. In 1968, he was one of a number of Dundee students who invaded the St. Andrews' rugby pitch during a match between St. Andrews and the Orange Free State to protest against Apartheid. The same year, Robertson expressed his opposition to proposed cuts by the government in student grants, by organising a 24-hour work-in by students in the university library.
Robertson went on to partake in a political career in the Labour Party. His roles include being a Member of Parliament (1978-1999), Member of the House of Lords (2000), Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland (1993-1997), Secretary of State for Defence (1997-1999), and the 10th Secretary General of NATO (1999-2003).
He has received numerous honours for his time in the political sector.
Professor J. Mark Cornwall joined the Department from Oxford University in 1991. He was Reader in European history and the Department's Postgraduate Coordinator. His doctoral research (University of Leeds, 1988) was on the collapse of the Habsburg Empire in the First World War, and his general field of interest is east-central Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
In 1994 he was awarded the BP prize lectureship by the Royal Society of Edinburgh for services to East European history. He has also held a Leverhulme Trust 'Study Abroad Fellowship' at the University of Toronto (2000-1) and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In 2000, together with Professor Robert Evans (Oxford), he set up the Forum of British, Czech and Slovak Historians which held its first conference at the University of Dundee in 2002
Mark Cornwall was made a Professor in 2004, the same year that he was awarded a large AHRB grant. He left Dundee in 2004 to take up a post at Southampton University
Mark Rogers was an artist who with Patrick Gallagher and Tony Husband founded Oink! magazine, a subversive and alternative kids' comic with broad appeal. It was published by Fleetway publications between 1986 and 1988, eventually merged with Buster. The founders went on to create the children's TV series Round the Bend.
There's an Oink! Facebook group which Tony Husband and some of the artists post on. OinkComic@groups.facebook.com