Graduation address: Professor Rebecca Goss
Thursday 6 December 2018
Vice-Chancellor, ladies and gentlemen, new graduates, I am delighted and awestruck to be giving this graduation address and to share in your special day.
Today, we celebrate significant achievement and a milestone in the lives of many talented individuals: achievement that is enabled by your intellect, your hard work and the support given to you by your families and by your friends. From this morning, you join the ranks of the elite St Andrews alumni who have set a precedent for excellence and for being pioneers.
St Andrews has historically been at the forefront of science and mathematics.
In Chemistry, the curly arrow which enables reaction mechanisms to be considered was pioneered by Sir Robert Robinson (a member of this University in the 1920s) and who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1947.
James Black graduated from St Andrews in 1946 and he was awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on beta-blockers and H2 receptor antagonists.
James Gregorie, Regius Professor of Mathematics from 1668, is noted for his many achievements including contributions to calculus, the reflecting telescope, and his ingenious diffraction grating. He used a bird feather (that, I like to think he perhaps picked up from the West Sands – perhaps it belonged to a seagull or perhaps it belonged to a migrating goose) to split sunlight into its composite colours – an observation and a phenomenon which was at the time controversial, even though Newton had demonstrated this the previous year with a prism.
St Andrews has demonstrated itself to be societally focused and entrepreneurial. The world’s very first commercial savings bank was established by Henry Duncan (who studied at St Andrews from 1788 to 1790 and received his Doctor of Divinity in 1823).
As St Andrews commits, through its new Strategic Plan, to continue as an institution that is World- leading, Diverse, Global and Entrepreneurial, we can be rightly proud of our past, but even more proud of you - our future. We look to you as the new pioneers.
And what advice can we give you as you walk toward a frontier that is dramatically different to that experienced by your St Andrews predecessors? My advice can be summarised in three words: Build, Stand and Support.
Build - build upon the foundation that you have established at St Andrews. Like pillars within this ancient established university, be strong and stand.
It has been said, “you can’t fall if you don’t take a stand”. However -
Stand – stand up for what is true and what is right. Influence society. Influence government. Be encouraged by Elsie Howie who began studying here in 1902 and who played a leading role in securing the right for women to vote. (Although I am not encouraging you to be exactly like her – she was arrested for pummelling the then Prime Minister!)
Support – support each other within the extended St Andrews family.
We have just witnessed Paul Lawrie receiving an honorary degree – amongst his many accolades he is famed for scoring what is believed to be only the eighth albatross in the Open Championship’s almost 150-year history.
And considering James Gregorie’s bird feather, and inspired by Paul’s albatross, perhaps there is a lesson in support that we can learn from birds:
Migrating geese arrive in the Eden Estuary and St Andrews just ahead of the winter graduation each year, and they have inspired experts who write on support and leadership from whom I adapt the following advice.
Fact 1: By flying in formation geese at the front create uplift. The result is that each bird can fly 71% further by flying with its flock, than if it flew alone.
Fact 2: As soon as a goose drops out of formation it feels the drag and resistance of flying alone.
Fact 3: When the lead goose is tired, it falls back into formation and other geese progress to the front and share the heavy tasks of leadership.
Fact 4: The geese honk! They honk to encourage those at the front to keep up the speed – voicing their encouragement.
May we encourage you as you go out as pioneers of this generation but remembering this final lesson of the geese; stay in touch with your community, support others, ask for help if you need it, and always be prepared to pioneer and lead the way.
Congratulations and thank you.
Professor Rebecca Goss
School of Chemistry