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Maggie (Margaret) Sutherland was born in Glasgow on 18 October 1881. She graduated from the University of Glasgow where she was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science (1908) and Doctor of Science (1914). Sutherland was an Asssociate of the Institute of Chemistry (AIC) becoming Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry (FIC) around 1920.

Sutherland was appointed at the Royal Technical College, Glasgow as lecturer in chemistry in 1913; and lecturer in inorganic chemistry in 1935 until she resigned in 1947.

Toni (Antonia) Bunch was born on 13 February 1937 in Croydon, Surrey, England, to Harold and Helen Bunch (née Wilson). Having missed out on going to university when she left school, she took an alternative route to qualify for her chosen profession. After completing correspondence courses and attending classes at Ealing Technical College, she sat and passed the Library Association’s Associateship (ALA) examination in 1960 and subsequently worked in Scotland, spending most of her career in Edinburgh, where she specialised in medical librarianship.

From 1962-1965, Toni was employed as Assistant Librarian at the Scottish Office in Edinburgh. In 1965, she was appointed as Librarian at the Scottish Health Service Centre, where she remained until 1981, establishing its library as a national resource centre for information on all aspects of healthcare management and planning. Whilst working full-time, she completed a research thesis entitled ‘Hospital and medical libraries in Scotland: an historical and sociological study’, which she successfully submitted for the Fellowship of the Library Association (FLA) in 1973 and later published as an article in Scottish Library Studies 3 (1975).

Toni went on to register as a part-time research student at the University of Strathclyde in 1974, graduating in 1976 with the degree of Master of Arts for her thesis entitled ‘Health care administration: an information sourcebook’. The thesis was published by Capital Planning Information in 1979.

From August 1981 until 1986, Toni was employed as a Lecturer in the Department of Librarianship (known from 1985 as the Department of Information Science) at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She also enrolled as a part-time PhD student there in January 1982. The topic of her doctoral research was Scottish medical and scientific book collectors to the end of the eighteenth century, which she described as being a logical progression from the research undertaken for her FLA thesis in the early 1970s. In March 1987, however, she abandoned her doctoral studies without completing or submitting a thesis. That same year, she was appointed as Director of the newly created Scottish Science Library at the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, remaining in post until her retirement at the age of 59. She latterly lived in the village of Garvald, East Lothian, and died, aged 86 on 21 March 2023.

Toni was a Fellow of the Institute of Information Scientists, receiving its Jason Farradane Award in 1990; a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (a new body created when the Library Association merged with the Institute of Information Scientists in 2002); a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and a Council member of the Scottish Society for the History of Medicine. During her career, she served on several national and international committees concerned with librarianship and information science. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1996.

David Paterson was born and brought up in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, where his father was secretary of the local Labour Party and Provost of Clydebank. Paterson attended Clydebank High School, where he was school captain, then enrolled for a four-year associateship course in economics at the Scottish College of Commerce (SCC), Glasgow, in 1961. Having joined the Labour Party as a young teenager, he was active in student politics. He served as Vice-President (Internal Affairs) of the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) in the lead-up to the SCC’s merger with the Royal College of Science and Technology to form the University of Strathclyde. Following the merger, Paterson completed his fourth and final year of study (session 1964-1965) at Strathclyde, where he was also Joint Vice-President (Internal Affairs) of the SRC. He graduated with the degree of bachelor of arts with honours in economics in 1965, then moved to London and worked in industry for several years. In session 1970-1971, he returned to education, taking a masters degree in social sciences at the University of Birmingham. He subsequently became a trade union official and was elected as Deputy General Secretary of the Banking, Insurance and Finance Union (BIFU) and Vice-President of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC). He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1993.

Joan Elizabeth Curran (née Strothers), born in Swansea, was a distinguished scientist who made a considerable contribution to Britain’s defence effort during the Second World War. She also worked to support mentally handicapped children, and was very active in the early years of the University of Strathclyde.

Joan worked as a research student in the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge where she met Samuel Curran. They married in 1940. During the Second World War, she was instrumental in ‘Operation Windows’: a device to disrupt enemy radar. Joan Curran also worked on the Manhattan project along with Sir Samuel Curran.

In 1953 Lady Curran formed the Scottish Society for the Mentally Handicapped, the first meetings of which were in her own home.

She was also very active in University life, supporting her husband who became the first Principal of the University of Strathclyde in 1964. She took steps to involve women socially and educationally in the institution and founded the Strathclyde Women’s Group.

Lady Joan Curran was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, recognising her work, from the University of Strathclyde in 1987.

In 1976, the University Court approved the establishment of a university archive: "Having considered the view that the University now needed the services of an archivist to identify, record and collate relevant material." The appointment of an honorary archivist and an archival assistant was approved and, in February 1977, Emeritus Professor S. G. E. Lythe became the full-time honorary archivist. Bruce Jackson was appointed archival assistant in April 1977 and James S. McGrath archivist in 1980/1981. In 2005, the University Library officially took over responsibility for the University Archives and a combined department of Archives and Special Collections was established.

Blodwen Lloyd Binns, M.Sc., Ph.D., was a lecturer and later senior lecturer in botany, bacteriology, and biology at the Royal Technical College, Glasgow from 1926 to 1962.

Blodwen Lloyd Binns studied at University College, Aberystwyth, and graduated with first class honours and an MSc degree. In 1929, she achieved a PhD from the University of Glasgow. In 1926, she joined the staff of the Royal Technical College (the antecedent of the University of Strathclyde) as lecturer, later becoming senior lecturer, in biology and during her long association with the institution, she built upon an active teaching and research group. She travelled widely and internationally for her research including: to Naples to study Dinoflagellates; to the University of Geneva to study the Alpine flora; to the Pasteur Institute to study the diphtheria organism; to the University of California to study marine bacteria and along the Amazon River to collect specimens. In 1939, Professor Waksman, who was later to be awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of Streptomycin, invited her to speak at an international congress of microbiology in New York. Having heard her, he immediately offered her a senior fellowship to work with him. A few months later, World War II broke out and Lloyd Binns returned to Glasgow. She joined the Ministry of Labour, becoming successively Welfare Superintendent and Personnel Manager in the Training Scheme for Women in Engineering, and Woman Power Officer. In 1944, she moved to the British Council in London to become Secretary of the Science Department and Deputy to the Director, meantime editing the Council’s ‘Science Commentary’ and lecturing to HM Forces.

After the War Lloyd Binns returned to Glasgow and continued her work. She became founder chair of the Glasgow Film Society, in 1954 Chair of the British Universities Film Council, an important figure in the formation of the University of Strathclyde ’96 Club, and Vice-President of the Andersonian Naturalists (now the Glasgow Naturalists) in the early 1960s. In the Royal Technical College building, she unearthed a major herbarium collected by John Scoular (1804-1871) and Roger Hennedy (1811-1879), both professors of natural history at the antecedent institution of the University of Strathclyde. She cleaned, remounted, reclassified and catalogued thousands of specimens that are now on permanent loan to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Later, in the 1960s, she was offered a visiting professorship for one year in the University of Malawi. Seven years later, having written a book on the flora of Malawi (including native names, and there are about nine dialects) she established a Malawi herbarium and chose the flowers for two sets of Malawi postage stamps.

In 1984, Blodwen Lloyd Binns was presented with an honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Strathclyde. She died in 1991.

Gerri (Geraldine) Kirkwood studied at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh and the Scottish Institute of Human Relations. She began her career as a teacher of French and later became a Reporter to Children’s Panels and community activist in Glasgow. In 1979, she joined Lothian Regional Council to work on the Adult Learning Project (ALP) in the Gorgie Dalry area of Edinburgh, as a community adult educator, along with Stan Reeves and Fiona McCall. The aim of the project was to devise new methods of working educationally with adults in the community and was based on the ideas of the Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire. She spoke about Freire at national events in Ireland and England. In 1989, she was appointed Assistant Principal and Head of Community Affairs at Wester Hailes Education Centre, a community school in Edinburgh. Following retirement, she taught English to international students.

In 1982, the Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology was formed from the four smaller departments of Food Science and Nutrition, Applied Microbiology, Biology, and Biochemistry, together with the Biotechnology Unit.

Colin Kirkwood grew up in Caithness, Galloway and Ayrshire, Scotland. He studied at Ardrossan Academy, the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh and the Scottish institute of Human Relations. He has been described as a Scottish generalist, with interests in literature and the arts, moral philosophy, politics, education, religion and psychoanalysis.

From the 1970s onwards, he played leading roles in adult and workers education and community action, promoting the ideas of the radical Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire. Between 1976 and 1986 he was employed by the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) South-East Scotland District, initially as Tutor Organiser and then as District Secretary. He was heavily involved in the community newspaper and writers workshop movements. Community newspapers with which he was associated include ‘Staveley Now’, ‘Castlemilk Today’ and ‘Scottish Tenant’.

He subsequently qualified as a counsellor and psychoanalytic psychotherapist and became head of the Centre for Counselling Studies at the Moray House School of Education at the University of Edinburgh. Following retirement from the University, he worked for five years as Senior Psychotherapist at the Huntercombe Edinburgh Hospital, where he worked with women and girls with severe eating disorders.

He wrote several books including ‘Adult Education and the Unemployed’ (1984), ‘Vulgar Eloquence: Essays on Education, Community and Politics’ (1990), ‘Living Adult Education: Freire in Scotland' (second edition, 2011) (with Gerri Kirkwood), 'The Persons in Relation Perspective: in Counselling, Psychotherapy and Community Adult Learning' (2012) and 'Community Work and Adult Education in Staveley, North-East Derbyshire, 1969-1972' (2020). He also published poetry and literary criticism.

The Rotterdam Convention is a global treaty to manage chemicals in international trade.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) developed and promoted voluntary information exchange programmes in the mid-1980s. A series of meetings and activity led to the formalisation of the Rotterdam Convention. The text of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade was adopted and opened for signature at the Conference of Plenipotentiaries held in Rotterdam on 10 September 1998.
The Convention entered into force on 24 February 2004 and became legally binding for its parties.

Lythe was Professor of Economic History, 1962-1976, Vice-Principal, 1972-1976, and Honorary Archivist,1977-1980, at the University of Strathclyde.

Lythe graduated with an MA from Selwyn College, Cambridge after which he was employed as a lecturer at the University of Hull. In 1935, he moved to Dundee School of Economics. During the Second World War he served in the RAF. After the war, he continued working at the Dundee School of Economics where he pioneered the teaching of economic history, publishing in 1950 the groundbreaking book 'British Economic History since 1760'.

In 1962, he was appointed to the first Chair of Economic History at the Royal College of Science and Technology in Glasgow. In 1963, there were only four other lecturers teaching alongside Lythe in the department. After the College gained University status in 1964 becoming the University of Strathclyde, Lythe strove to develop the department, for example introducing political history. In 1974, he obtained approval from the Senate and Court for a new degree course in Modern History. A new Chair was created and the department renamed the Department of History.

Lythe was appointed the first Dean of the School of Arts and Social Studies and served in this role for nine years. In 1972, he was appointed Vice Principal of the University. He retired in 1976. In 1977, he was appointed Honorary Archivist in which role he collected and established the University's historical collections. He served as Honorary Archivist until 1980.

In addition to his appointments at Strathclyde, Lythe was a founding member, in the 1960s, of the Abertay Historical Society. He also produced booklets on the history of Walkington, the village in which he grew up. He was a member of the Scottish Local History Council, Hamilton College of Education, the Scottish Field of Archaeology, and the Scottish Universities Summer School Committee.

He died in 1997.

Selected publications:

• 'British Economic History since 1760', 1950
• 'The Economy of Scotland in its European Setting 1550-1625', 1960
• 'The Economic History of Scotland 1100 to 1939', 1975
• 'A History of Dundee School of Economics', 1981 (Co author)

Scottish writer and author of the novel 'The Dear Green Place'.

Leading advocate of critical pedagogy.