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The discovery of ibuprofen in the 1960s by renowned chemist and pharmaceutical scientist Dr Stewart Adams and his colleagues at the Boots Laboratories in Nottingham marked a turning point in non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug design. Dr Adams had joined the research department at Boots after graduating with a degree in Pharmacy from the ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ (then University College, Nottingham) in 1945. The stories of the subsequent development of ibuprofen in the 1950s and 1960s by Dr Adams and his team and of how he first tested the drug on himself have become part of pharmacological folklore.

With the introduction of ibuprofen into clinical practice in 1969, patients finally had access to a drug that was effective and had significantly less side-effects than the anti-inflammatory drugs available at the time. The excellent safety record of ibuprofen led it to be made available over the counter in 1983. It is now listed as one of the WHO's 'essential' medicines. Its chemical stability has also enabled the drug to be formulated in to many different forms, such as topical gels and creams, as well as advanced oral formulations thus greatly increasing its range of clinical applications.

Dr Stewart Adams, born 16 April 1923; died 30 January 2019.

Photo courtesy of Boots Archive.

In 1988 Sir Colin made history as he became the university's fifth Vice-Chancellor – then the youngest in the country to do so at the age of 43. He was passionate about Nottingham becoming both a globally renowned and research-led university.

Sir Colin played a key role in the commissioning of the Jubilee Campus expansion in 1999 and was instrumental in raising Nottingham’s profile internationally – overseeing the opening of our campuses in China and Malaysia, and attracting more overseas students than any other university in the country during his tenure.

Professor Sir Colin Campbell, born 26 December 1944; died 20 May 2022.

During her career, having trained as a children's nurse, Dame Elizabeth held a variety of registered nurse, midwife and health visitor posts before supporting the nursing profession nationally, becoming Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for England and serving as Director of Nursing / Lead Director for reviews and inspections at the Commission for Health Improvement.
She was a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Queen’s Nursing Institute and the Institute of Health Visiting.

In 2009 she was awarded the DBE for services to nursing and healthcare. Her most recent roles included commissioner on the Midlands Engine Health Inequalities Post Covid Commission, Vice-Chair of the UK children's charity Together for Short Lives, membership of Southwell Cathedral Council and Nomination Committee and clinical advisor to Nourish.
Previously, Dame Liz was the High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire for 2020/21, Vice President of Rainbows Children’s Hospice, and an advisor to Justice Defenders.

Dame Liz was well known to our university community, having served as a University Council member from August 2009 until December 2018 and as University Vice-President from January 2012 through to the end of her tenure in December 2018. In addition, she was an honorary professor in the School of Health Sciences and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the university in 2003.

Professor Dame Elizabeth Fradd, born 12 May 1949; died 12 May 2024

A renowned nuclear physicist, Professor Yang Fujia became Nottingham’s sixth Chancellor in 2001, the first time that a Chinese academic had held the role in a UK university. In 2004 along with the then Vice-Chancellor Colin Campbell and Madame Xu Yafen he helped to establish our Ningbo campus, the first Sino-foreign university in China.

Born in Shanghai in 1936, Yang attended Fudan University where he remained as a teacher after graduating in 1958. From 1963 to 1965, he took up the role of postdoctoral researcher at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, but after returning home to China, he established the state-of-the-art Accelerator-based Atomic and Nuclear Physics Laboratory and began China’s first research into ion beam analysis. In 1993 he became the president of Fudan University where he stayed until 1999. He joined the ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ in 2001.

These prestigious roles gave him profound insights into the development of higher education and talent cultivation in China. He advocated the idea of liberal arts education, speaking and writing actively on various occasions to promote the reform of higher education in China. Yang Fujia promoted the establishment of the ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ Ningbo China, which opened a new model of Sino-foreign cooperative education, and served as UNNC’s first President.

Yang Fujia was also Director of the Shanghai Institute of Nuclear Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences from 1987 to 2001, Chairman of the Shanghai Science and Technology Association (1992–1996), and he was the first president of the Association of University Presidents of China (1997–1999).

Professor Yang Fujia, born 11 June 1936; died 17 July 2022.

Peter Mansfield was born in Lambeth, London, on 9 October 1933. He went to school in Peckham, leaving at age 15 to work as a printer's assistant. Having developed an interest in rocketry, he got a job aged 18 with the Rocket Propulsion Department of the Ministry of Supply.  He studied for his A-Levels at night school, then went to Queen Mary College, London, to study Physics, graduating in 1959 and completing his PhD in 1962. He then carried out postdoctoral research with Professor Charles Slichter at the University of Illinois, studying nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in solids. 

In 1964 he returned to the UK to take up a post as lecturer here at Nottingham, becoming a senior lecturer in 1968 and a Reader in 1970. He continued his research into NMR, working on multi-pulse techniques. In the early 1970s he proposed the idea that NMR could be used to study the structure of matter, and this developed into a vision of how NMR could form the basis of a medical imaging technique. This technique was later named magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). One of his earliest important contributions was the invention of a method for selecting and imaging a specific slice through an object.  Funded by the Medical Research Council he developed MRI apparatus which produced the first MRI images of a live human finger in 1974, and a live human torso (Mansfield's own) in 1978. He went on to initiate and develop the technique of Echo-Planar Imaging (EPI) in the late 1970s, which allowed extremely fast imaging of dynamic processes such as a beating heart. He was appointed Professor in 1979.  

Mansfield was instrumental in the construction of the university's Magnetic Resonance Centre and was its first Director, from 1991 to 1994. It is now named the Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre. He formally retired in 1994, but continued his research, particularly into the noise levels generated by the MRI process. Mansfield was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1987, and was knighted in 1993. In 2003 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Lauterbur 'for their discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging'.

Professor Sir Peter Mansfield, born 9 October 1933; died 8 February 2017.

Daphne Franks, as she was as a student, studied her undergraduate degree in Sociology at Nottingham, graduating in 1954. She then went on to take her PGCE in Education and to become the first woman to hold the position of Students' Union President outside of wartime. Her tenure from 1954-55 saw her helping to design the Portland Building as a dedicated space on campus where students could come together. The building remains the hub of student life and the home of the Students’ Union to this day.

Daphne met her future husband, Clive Priestley (History, 1956; MA History 1958), at Nottingham, he was even her successor as SU President! Daphne’s OBE was awarded in 1996 in recognition of her extensive years of service for the West Berkshire Magistracy (as Chair for five years and serving JP for 31 years, from 1968-1999) and her work for Thames Valley Policy Authority between 1981 and 1999, where she was Vice-Chairman in 1993 and Chairman for five years from 1994-99. A great focus was the principle of restorative justice, which she championed with Sir Charles Pollard, Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, 1991-2002.

Daphne last visited the university in April 2014 as part of the centenary celebrations for the Students’ Union, fittingly meeting Ellie McWilliam who was President in the centenary year. For International Women’s Day 2018, Daphne was part of an exhibition featuring 14 photographic portraits of inspiring Women with a connection to Nottingham and the university. Her portrait remains on display in our Monica Partridge Building, named after Nottingham’s first female Professor.
Daphne kept up her connection with Nottingham students through her scholarship support and for a number of years as a volunteer panel member for our alumni donations fund, scoring applications from student projects. She was a dedicated donor for over 30 years. 

Since the opening of our Graduate Entry Medicine course in 2003, her Franks scholarship fund has been supporting aspiring GPs studying as graduate entrants at Nottingham. She took great delight in exchanging letters with the students benefitting from her generous support, hearing about their plans for their medical studies and the people they hoped to help in the future. Daphne chose to leave a gift in her Will to support future generations of students through this scholarship fund. She will continue to be a guiding light at Nottingham.

Daphne Priestley, born 28 June 1932; died 9 March 2026.