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Past Greenough President returns
9 March 2018
Dr Gordon Knox, the 1967 President of Greenough, currently the committee member at Malta Water Association returns to UCL for a lecture seminar.
The Greenough Club has been running since 1904; it is still going strong, with Hannah Simpson as its current President. A few weeks ago, the Club was very pleased to welcome back a Greenough President from earlier times – Dr Gordon Knox – who came to give a talk on Malta's Water Consumption: Local and Global Challenges. Gordon is now probably one of the oldest alumni with whom we are still in touch. He was a student in what was then the UCL Geology Department from 1965-1968, and was Greenough President in his final year. After leaving UCL, Gordon gained a PhD from Liverpool and then went on to a long career in international oil and gas exploration. More recently, he has developed a voluntary interest in Malta’s water situation and is a founder member of the Malta Water Association.
As well as the scientific aspects of his talk, Gordon was also able to educate the current generation of students as to what UCL was like 50 years ago. In those days UCL was a very different place, with the total number of undergraduates probably around 3,000, rather than the 18,000+ we have today. In the somewhat more relaxed environment of the 1960s, Greenough Club field trips featured more prominently than they do today – I’m not sure what UCL’s take on the statement in the 1967 Greenough Club recruiting flyer that “a tipsy member of staff is a good story-teller in the pub in the evening” would be nowadays.
News In Brief and dates for your diaries:
- The KLB: Refurbishment of the Kathleen Lonsdale Building is now almost complete and the Department has nearly finished moving out of the South Wing. We shall be organising an event after Easter at which alumni will be able to view the completed project.
- The 2018 Alumni Dinner will be held (provisionally) on 23rd November 2018; we look forward to seeing many of you then.
- Greenough Talks: Any alumni who would like to come back to visit us and speak about their careers to our current students would be very welcome; just Email Ian Wood (ian.wood @ ucl.ac.uk) to arrange to come.