| William (Bill) Izatt (Sadly deceased August 2016)
On leaving university in 1964 I went to work for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) as a Geophysicist. I did my training with Brian Armstrong (also a Glasgow Graduate) in Lerwick Met Station in the Shetlands. On the boat down to Antarctica we called in at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands and then at South Georgia. When we finally arrived we took over from another team that were leaving. Each team mostly spent two years on the base, the boat only coming in once a year, that's if the ice allowed. My main job was to measure the magnetic fields, the ozone layer and solar radiation. I have many stories about my time there but unfortunately not enough room here to tell them.
When we left in 1967 we called back in at Port Stanley and then sailed on to Montevideo. The boat then carried on back to England but I took the opportunity to travel through South America (more stories) and finally ended up in New York where I sailed back to England on board what was one of the last sailings on the original Queen Mary.
Back in Blighty I worked up my results in Edinburgh and in 1968 went to work for BP in the Middle East as a geophysicist where part of my job was diving. I found this part of the job got up my nose and so left and deciding to change career went to work for ICL in computing. Living in and around London the next few years were spent writing new systems, doing an MSc in Computer Science at UCL and working for the Post Office, being the chief designer of the team for PRESTEL.
I left the industry for a few years to lecture and do research in computer science at Imperial College but then re-entered the game in 1981 working for GEC and then British Telecom.
In 1988 I married Julia and in 1989 our daughter Emily was born. I carried on working as a Telecommunications Specialist until I retired early in 2000. Once Emily had started University we moved back to Scotland and are now living in Troon, Ayrshire. My health and general mobility these days are not good so am limited as to what I can do.
I still follow my interest in supporting the paddle steamer Waverley during her sailings on the Clyde.
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