Dave’s Final Reflections: Serendipity, Diversity, Together

Thanks so much for today, it reinforced a few thoughts I’d had about all those years spent with you.

First, serendipity. Opportunities always came. One example in 1973 came at a British Society for Social Responsibility in Science (BSSRS) Committee Meeting. Eric Burhop, the President of the World Federation of Scientific Workers (set up by J D Bernal), mentioned that he had been sent a short note from a member at the University of Dar Es Salaam, Kassim Guruli. It asked him whether he knew anyone with engineering background for a lectureship in Development Studies. I was just finishing my PhD in Materials Technology, knowing that I no longer wanted to be a materials technologist.

The ‘ad note’ was a scrappy three inch sheet with an address. I sent an almost equally scrappy two page CV highlighting my PhD and my work with BSSRS (Battersea Smell, Social Context of Science Education, etc). Five weeks later a telegram arrived which I still have. ‘The University of Dar Es Salaam offers a Lectureship in Development Studies’.

And so on, for a whole career including Frelimo asking Pam for volunteers in Dar Es Salaam, then deciding to upgrade after Mozambique by focusing on the new Information Technology and finding a research post in robotics at Aston, the OU setting up Third World Studies weirdly in a Technology Faculty, then from UK science parks to Stanford and UC Berkeley and meeting Naushad. The social side of the human genome, an ESRC Centre and Edinburgh. What serendipidy! What incredible luck!

Second, diversity. Varieties of disciplines, interdisciplines and transdisciplines. Varieties of problems, places and colleagues. Two interdisciplines in particular – Innovation and Development.

And diversity of places and people, some of whom are here today. Hands up: Who was with me at

• Imperial College (Teresa Smart, Mike Muller) and BSSRS (Mike Hales, Robin Williams, Moira Dick, Richard Williams, Pam Smith, Joe Hanlon)
• Tanzania (Marc Wuyts, Irene Leigh, Pam)
• Mozambique – note how people keep reappearing …Teresa, Mike Muller, Marc, Ruth Muller, Maureen Mackintosh, Gill Walt, Angela Melamed, Joe Hanlon, Pam always of course.
• AA (Nick Jeffrey)
• Aston (Fred Steward, Robin W)
• OU (Hazel Johnson, Robin Roy and so many more)
• Stanford (Naushad)
• Edinburgh (Robin W once more).

How to measure all that support. A key element is the support and leadership of some amazing women leaders (including Ruth First, Doreen Massey, Joyce Tait, Hazel Johnson, Jo Chataway, Maureen Mackintosh).

Finally, the diversity of teams working Together: including on

• Imperial and the fight to introduce social sciences and go beyond the cultural sheep dip
• BSSRS, Social Context of Science Education and the Battersea Smell
• Tanzania and firm level industrial innovation
• Mozambique, the miner study (Black Gold)
• OU course teams, 19 of them
• Followers to Leaders, and
• Innogen.

All these projects involved teams, and many of these teams pioneered new ways of integrating disciplines.

I loved the final session today that showed how important is mentoring and support for doctoral students and beyond, whether in academe or in other parts of society.

We all deserve a celebration right now I think. COVID has reinforced a longer period of increasingly intense danger and hate and war, but even now we can work for peace, look for the spaces where we can make a difference, and try for optimism.

So thank you for this wonderful day, and for the 55 odd years before today. Thanks particularly to Alex Bud Dinar Kale and Stacey Adamson for organising, and to all the speakers and all colleagues many who have been here for much of that journey.