Alumni Services

1960s

Every corner of the globe seems to be covered by our 1960s graduates whose lives have taken them far beyond Edinburgh.

Ash Gupta

Ash Gupta
From trashed guitars to electric cars, Ash Gupta has blended a life and career that have been equally eventful. He tell us about previous and current ventures, and how he still rocks at 74.

Mary Chamberlain

Mary Chamberlain
Mary Chamberlain studied Politics at Edinburgh at a point in history when students were a crucial part of political debate and protest. She tells us about being a founding member of the University's Politics Society and a career that has finally led her to her dream job.

Abraham Fung-A-Fat

ACC A-Fat
Abraham Augustus Clemwood Fung-A-Fat is a retired medic from Guyana. Here he remembers his time as a student in 1960s Edinburgh and tells us about his many accomplishments since graduating.

Fadwa Affara

Fadwa Affara
Fadwa Affara retired to Edinburgh following an international career in nursing education regulation and advance practice, but that hasn't stopped her from supporting healthcare professionals fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Grania Skeldon

Grania Skeldon
Grania Skeldon has led a peripatetic life. Here the 1966 French and German graduate recounts her work and travels with the United Nations and as a freelance editor.

Rob Blacklock

Rob Blacklock sitting by a window
Rob Blacklock recalls his experience of studying medicine in the 1960s and shares the path he took to becoming a consultant urological surgeon.

John Hale

Dr John Hale with the books he has written
Renowned Milton scholar Dr John Hale on the research path that took him to Dunedin, New Zealand, and why the author of 'Paradise Lost' is worth disagreeing with.

Jimmy Gordon

Jimmy Gordon writing on a filpchart
Law graduate Jimmy Gordon traces the challenges and opportunities he's embraced over the decades, starting with anecdotes about politics, papers and prams as a student parent in the sixties.

Ian Malcolm

Ian Malcolm in his graduation robes in 1960 (black and white)
Ian Malcolm swapped a radio station for university lecture halls when he decided to become a teacher. Now retired, he has spent much of his time revisiting his Merchant Navy past in his published writings.

James O’Donnell

James O'Donnell
Edinburgh Dental School graduate James O'Donnell looks back on a fulfilling career in dentistry in his home city.

Gabor Ronay

Medieval historian and writer Gabor Ronay was forced to flee Hungary after the 1956 Revolution. Starting over in Edinburgh, he loved every aspect of student life in the welcoming city.

Mary Chamberlain

Mary Chamberlain
Politics graduate Mary Chamberlain on smuggling anti-Apartheid literature, developing oral history and reinventing herself as a novelist.

Geoff Palmer

Geoff Palmer
Alongside careers in research, science, technology and teaching, brewing science pioneer Professor Sir Geoff Palmer has contributed greatly to civil society and has a keen interest in Scottish-Caribbean historical connections.

Alan Wilson

Alumnus Alan Wilson
Dr Alan Wilson's career in veterinary medicine has taken him to Uganda, Australia, Kenya, and Indonesia, where he founded a company that helps local people conserve their environment through ecotourism.

Malcolm Blackie

Malcolm Blackie
Professor Malcolm Blackie’s long career in African agricultural development and education has benefited many people, from former students now in influential positions to smallholder farmers.

Moragh Bradshaw

Moragh Bradshaw on her graduation day
No stranger to helping people out, Moragh Bradshaw MBE tells us about her involvement in everything from student campaigns to extensive voluntary work, and shares her reason for supporting the University through a gift in her will.

Christa Hook

From South Africa to Somalia and hospital wards to war zones, Dr Christa Hook's global career can be described as a spiral.

Judith Mackay

Based in Hong Kong since the late sixties, committed feminist Professor Judith Mackay is a leading advocate of tobacco control, a role that comes with powerful industry adversaries.

Chris Cameron

Chris Cameron on the day of his first Edinburgh graduation in 1964
Chris Cameron is an Edinburgh alumnus three times over, and with degrees in three very different subjects. He tells us why he kept coming back.

Jason Spencer-Cooke

Jason Spencer-Cooke
With a varied international career to look back on, Jason Spencer-Cooke tells us about his equally varied student experiences.

Eve Vivienne Clark

Eve Clark, Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University, was drawn to language from a young age having grown up speaking English and French. She shares her many memories of living and working in Scotland.

Hamish Halls

Hamish Halls
Hamish Halls' decision to switch from Chemistry to Philosophy after his first year proved to be a very wise one. He explains why and vividly recounts life as an Edinburgh student in the 1960s.

Professor Prem Narain

Prem Narain
An initial project working with flies in India sparked Professor Prem Narain’s lifelong passion for genetics and led him to Edinburgh where alongside his PhD and DSc he gained many fond memories of Scotland.

Margaret Forrester

Margaret Forrester
After retiring from the church, the pioneering Bachelor of Divinity graduate Reverend Professor Margaret Forrester began a new career as a children’s author.

Graham Hutchins

Graham Hutchins
Graham Hutchins was so taken by Edinburgh after a year of study that he decided to stay on to complete his degree. He talks to us about interning at the Parish of St. Ninian’s and the journal he kept.

Roger Thomas

Roger Thomas
Business coach and eMentor Roger Thomas, talks about his time at University and where his career has taken him including over 20 years at IBM.

Derek Bruce

Dr Derek Bruce
Dr Derek Bruce talks to us about moving to the United States after graduating in medicine and how his Scottish charm and accent helped his career along the way.

John Moffat

John Moffat
Edinburgh was always physics graduate John Moffat’s first choice of university but a conversation with a professor led him down an unexpected path.

Ian Brown

Ian Brown
Professor Ian Brown believes his time at school and at Edinburgh laid the foundations for his long and interesting career. He talks to us about enthralling lecturers and being a playwright.

Mary Gavan

Mary Gavan
Mary Gavan, pure sciences and nursing studies graduate now shares her professional knowledge through storytelling.

Harriet Hoskyns-Abrahall

Harriet Hoskyns-Abrahall
Harriet Hoskyns-Abrahall hurled herself into every aspect of student life, and has maintained that attitude towards life ever since.

John Lloyd

John Lloyd
Journalist John Lloyd has sound advice for current students based on his own experiences of life at Edinburgh and beyond.

Christine De Luca

Christine De Luca
The continuous variety of student life- from shared bedsits to field trips in the Alps- stood out for Edinburgh’s Makar, Christine De Luca.

Donald Chatfield

Donald Chatfield
Donald Chatfield was drawn to Edinburgh by New College’s international reputation.

Lisbeth Thoms

Lisbeth Thoms
Lisbeth Thoms studied everything from fine art to politics, but it was archeology which inspired her subsequent career.

Robert Buckland

Robert Buckland
Robert Buckland arrived in Edinburgh by steam train from Wales in the 1960s.

Hamish Long

Hamish Long
Dining with Nobel prize winners and learning judo were some of Hamish Long’s highlights from his time at university.

Andrew Dobbie

Andrew Dobbie
Despite going to school with Mick Jagger, Andrew Dobbie calls his acceptance to the University of Edinburgh, 'the best thing that happened in my young life'.

Vivienne Cochrane

Vivienne Cochrane
Vivienne Cochrane tells us of a life marked by curiosity. Here we learn about Vivienne’s extensive travel and varied career.

Martyn Edelsten

Martyn Edelsten
Children’s Holiday Venture founder and Dick Vet graduate Martyn Edelsten, explains how starting the student society led him to working in developing countries.

Schuyler Jones

Schuyler Jones
Schuyler Jones travelled the world before choosing to come to Edinburgh.

Morag MacCormick

Morag MacCormick
Morag MacCormick began Nursing Studies at the University when it was the only course of its kind in Europe.

Ann West

Ann West
Retired further education specialist, Anne West chats about working with young people and James Robertson Justice and his mini.

Norma Allan

Norma Allan
Blue Badge Guide for Scotland Norma Allan talks about special memories, interesting vacation jobs and her love of poetry.

Professor Brian Perry

Brian Perry
Professor Brian Perry talks about studying at the Dick Vet and a career that has spanned the globe.

Angus Alexander Edmonds

Angus Alexander Edmonds
Educator Angus Alexander Edmonds talks William Golding, the value of participating in clubs and societies, and how living with others is an education in itself.

James Telfer Inglis

James Telfer Inglis
Well travelled linguist, James Telfer Inglis talks about identifying your limits and the value of learning to network.