Lessons from an unplanned scientific and academic life

Abstract

It is salutary, before reaching the middle of one’s eighties, whilst time is still available and memory is still in good order, to review a long life in its highlights, so as to better appreciate the circumstances that shaped and steered that life through its many days. Besides this appreciation, such a review permits a listing of lessons learned through that life, its joys as well as its woes, in the hope that they may be useful to young readers of your story. Like all other such stories, mine was the story of an individual, who lived under unique circumstances and reacted to them in a unique way. My story is best treated in terms of where it was experienced, that being: Malta (1929 to 1952), Oxford (1952 to 1956), Singapore (1956 to 1960), Khartoum (1960 to 1965), and Saskatoon (1965 to the time of writing). Each transition was necessitated by its own circumstance, brought fresh challenges and sustained a global career with few regrets and much personal and professional satisfaction.