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March

Tony Cockbain (Geology, 1955) wrote: "After finishing my PhD at the end of 1957 I joined the Cyprus Geological Survey (then part of the Colonial Geological Survey) as a micropalaeontologist. There I met my future wife, we then moved to Vancouver, where I worked as a marine geologist at the Institute of Oceanography in the University of British Columbia. After three years, sea-sickness made me realise that I preferred to work on dry land, so we went to New Zealand where I lectured at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch. After three years I decided to return to the geological survey environment and went to Perth as palaeontologist with the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA). During my time with the GSWA we had three or four Nottingham geology graduates working for the organisation.

"I had been a member of the Geological Society of Australia (GSSA) and the Royal Society of Western Australia for many years, and was Editor and President of the latter society, and both societies made me an Honorary Member. After retiring I took on the job of Hon Editor of the GSA’s journal the Australian Journal of Earth Science for 17 years for which I was given the W. R. Browne Award (for distinguished contributions to Australian geology).

"Geology gave me an interesting life, and the opportunity to travel. My wife and our four children (2 Canadians, 1 New Zealander, 1 Australian) have been very supportive, despite the changes of countries in the early days!  It is a great pity that Nottingham had to close the geology department, but it is rewarding to. see that the University has grown into one of the finest universities in the UK. Thank you for providing me with the tools to have had an enjoyable and interesting career."

_{Below, Tony and fellow students on a Forest of Dean field trip in 1953; (left to right) Tony Cockbain, Don Graham, ?, ?, Alec Honeyman, Neville Hill, Danny Gill, Bob Roach, Malcolm Shouls, John Shepherd, David Corbett, ?, (front) Bill Morgan, John Ife, Gill Sutcliffe.}  

Janice Denoncourt (PhD Law, 2015) wrote: "I was honoured to learn recently that a Chinese translation of my research monograph 'Intellectual Property Finance and Corporate Governance' (2023) Routledge Taylor-Francis ISBN-10 751308064X, ISBN-13 978-7513080644, largely based on my PhD thesis, has published in hardcopy.

"It is a special honour to be selected by Beijing-based Intellectual Property Publishing House (IPPH), the official provider for Chinese patent literature for translation, which was founded in August 1980 and only selects circa 80 foreign publications per annum for official translation.

"It is a pivotal publisher in the realm of intellectual property in China, facilitating the dissemination of domestic and international patent literature. According to WorldCat.org my book is now held in the collections of over 165 leading university libraries in more than 30 countries across five continents around the world."

Catherine Hughes (Chemistry 1990, PhD 1993) wrote: "After studying Chemistry at Nottingham, I worked in quality control at Boots Contract Manufacturing before spending nearly 10 years in IT at the Boots HQ.

"Following a career pivot into physical activity, I focused on Nordic Walking, progressing into instructor training and sector development. In 2017 I became CEO of , leading the organisation’s growth and promoting Nordic Walking as an evidence-informed approach to health, wellbeing, and community connection."

Emeritus Professor David Richardson (Botany, 1963; Master's Mycology, 1964) continues to lead an active life well into his ninth decade, co-authoring no less than nine research papers in the last two years. He also presented a to the Bristol 1904 Arts group in January.

February

Amy Child (English and Creative Writing, 2024) has entered her debut novel 'The Vow of Elias Cassius' into the Libraro Prize 2026, where the winner receives a publishing deal with Hachette! You can get involved on .

Calvin Woodroffe (Industrial Economics, 2011) has launched an innovative new tool to help UK taxpayers better understand their finances, called PocketTax.

Val Wilkinson (Biology, 1982; Cert. Ed, 1983) contacted us with an update: "After 30 varied years as an accountant, most latterly 10 years as Director of Finance & Administration at Plumpton College, I left my successful career 13 years prematurely on health grounds.

"I moved to the Highlands, near my late husband’s village, and have spent several peaceful years there including learning Gàidhlig. I am still passionate about ecology, that was a great place to be. Still in touch with friends from Rutland Hall and from the excellent Botany field trip to Bavaria."

Rosalie Zobel (Physics, 1964) shared an update: "I will forever be grateful to the late Professor Bates for accepting me onto the Physics honours course. I had no school recommendation, because I had been living abroad in Aden for the years before A-Levels. The PhD turned out to be very valuable too, mainly because it was respected by all at a time when women in the professions often were not.

"I had a very interesting career in the emerging field of Information Technology from its very start. I got into IT by luck, because when I got married I lived in an area without many opportunities for physicists. I worked first for ICL in Stevenage, then CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Munich, Germany, AERE Harwell, and the telecommunications giant AT&T in both New Jersey USA and in Tokyo Japan. Along the way I learned to speak German and French fluently, and also some Italian, Japanese and Spanish.

"My final job was twenty years with the European Commission in Brussels, where I became a Director of a large part of the Information Society Technologies Programme, part of the Horizons Programme for science and technology. I was the first woman director of a technical programme, and was responsible over the years for EU funded projects in microelectronics, health IT, electronic commerce and business, multimedia, transport IT, e-government, IT security, and environmental sustainability IT. I was responsible for EU funding amounting to over €1 billion a year, and had a very stimulating and interesting job. I also managed to bring up my two children in parallel.

"I write this little autobiography to encourage young women, and also young men, to think of science and technology as a career. My career experience of working in six countries shows how flexible and interesting a science based career can be. IT jobs can be found everywhere, and combined with world travel were interesting and fun."

January

Claire Shepherd (Law, 2010) is one of 42 lawyers newly elected to Partner at international law firm Gibson Dunn, consistently ranked among the world's best. 

Renjith Bhadran (MBA, 2013) has had a theoretical research article accepted for publication in Scientific Reports, a journal within the Nature portfolio. 

The article, titled “,” introduces a novel behavioural–systems theory and framework addressing the persistent global challenge of biomedical waste mis-segregation.

The study proposes a structured behavioral model to systematically measure and enhance segregation precision at the point of waste generation, offering institutional grading mechanisms and actionable insights for training design, compliance improvement, and evidence-based policy development.