Sussex University Memories – MAPS in 1989
I was at a meeting this afternoon doing some planning for a nice event coming up next month – of which more anon – when I was reminded of this photograph, taken one sunny day on the University of Sussex campus way back in 1989. It shows staff of the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences which was MAPS, acronymically speaking, in those days; now it is MPS. The picture is taken from a very interesting website of the history of physics at Sussex.
I was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Astronomy Centre in those days. I wonder who can spot me in the picture?
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In the Dark 
June 24, 2015 at 4:56 pm
No, that’s not me. There is a famous writer just behind Roger Tayler.
June 24, 2015 at 8:03 pm
Yes, the fifth from the left in the front row is Roger Tayler. In contrast, I’ve never seen Sjur Refsdal or Bengt Gustafsson, although at the time the photograph was taken I was very familiar with Gustafsson’s work.
June 25, 2015 at 12:04 pm
Thanks. I think I’d seen a picture of Bengt Gustafsson somewhere before. My knowledge of UK astronomers is better because of RAS meetings.
June 25, 2015 at 11:53 am
Are you in the same place in this picture?
https://telescoper.wordpress.com/2013/12/12/a-picture-from-the-past/
June 25, 2015 at 11:56 am
Well I never. I didn’t realise I had posted it before!
June 25, 2015 at 2:44 pm
I was wondering if there were any photos like this from earlier? I seem to recall standing around in order to have one taken on at least one occasion, but memory might be playing tricks on me. Nice shades by the way! And is that a “famous writer” or “infamous writer”?
June 25, 2015 at 2:51 pm
You can find the others at:
http://history.phys.susx.ac.uk/Pictures-MAPS_photos
There’s one from 1986. I was a PhD student then, and not in the picture. The next one was 1992 after I had left for Queen Mary.
June 25, 2015 at 4:46 pm
Incidentally, seated on the far left next to the porter is Sir William McCrea, who essentially created the Astronomy Centre at Sussex, in 1965. Bill passed away in 1999, at the age of 94.
June 25, 2015 at 6:05 pm
I thought it was. I remember him as one of a few very distinguished figures who would sit in the front row at RAS meetings in the 1980s and 1990s.