| Galton Institute Home Page | September 1996 Newsletter Contents | Newsletter Index |
This year we welcome another new President, the third in four years, and it is my pleasure to write a few words of introduction.
Peter Diggory’s term on Council came to an end at the AGM in June when he was succeeded as President by Robert Peel.
Robert joined the Institute in the early 1970s when an undergraduate at St John’s College, Cambridge. Although he went to Cambridge with the intention of specialising in physics, he became fascinated by the biological sciences and eventually took genetics as Part II of the Natural Sciences Tripos.
After graduating, Robert joined the Civil Service where he has acquired a variety of skills in the fields of management, law, accountancy and computing. Meanwhile, he has maintained a keen interest in the Institute’s affairs, delivering the Caradog Jones lecture on Natural Selection, Social Evolution and Economic Strategy in 1981 and attending every one of the Institute’s annual symposia from 1972 to the present day (most of which he has reported for the Institute’s successive publications the Bulletin, Biology and Society and most recently the Newsletter). He also reviewed several dozen books for these publications.
In 1982 Robert was elected to Council and he has now held every Honorary Office except that of Treasurer. He was Honorary Secretary in 1988 during the crucial negotiations with the DTI to change the Institute’s name and secure the privilege of being allowed to use the word "Institute" in the name. It was his paper entitled What is the Institute For? that provoked Peter Diggory's discussion paper on future policy, circulated to all members with the June 1995 Newsletter.
In 1991 Robert was able to combine his editorial and computing skills to start the Newsletter, which he will continue to edit while President. He also has responsibility for overseeing the Institute’s modest computing facilities and is currently considering whether the Newsletter might be published electronically, with the additional possibility of this and other material being made available over the Internet.