Dr Tom Bligh enlightens minds
Old Andrean Dr Thomas Bligh delivered a fascinating lecture entitled ‘Engineering and the human genome’ at the 2005 Sasol Scifest on 20 March. This lecture formed part of the Jubilee 150 calendar of celebration events and the school felt privileged to have such a renowned old boy returning to Grahamstown to enlighten minds.
His lecture was based on the Human Genome Project and gave a succinct overview of cell structures to show how DNA is extracted for sequencing and what the roll of engineering in this process is. He described instruments developed by BioRobotics Ltd and explained the difficulty of the task and that it cost more than the entire NASA Apollo moon landing programme.
Scientist in residence at St Andrew’s College Dr Bligh interacted with senior Science pupils and had the opportunity to address the entire school at assembly during his visit.
“Einstein always believed that imagination was more important than knowledge. Tom Bligh epitomises this. He has been an inspiration to our girls and boys, not only because of his remarkable achievements and success, but because of his approach to life which is driven by curiosity, seeing each project as 'good fun' and making a reality of one's dreams,” said Aidan Smith, head of Science.
Dr Bligh is well known for his passionate interest in design and his creative engineering skills. Designing vision assisted robots, software programmes for ship and yacht designs and the Controlled Explosive Rock Breaker are a just a few examples of his exciting and successful work. He has written four books and over 200 publications, has consulted for and advised the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia and China, as well as more than 100 major companies.
In his retirement he is continuing with his passion for design and is working on the ultimate underwater camera amongst other projects.
Missing Helen8th May 2012
"Missing Helen" will be St Andrew's College and DSG's Dance 2012 Production. Updates on the preparation and production will be posted here.
Ireland Debating Tour4th May 2012
13 College Debaters participated in the St Andrew's Ireland Model United Nations competition in Dublin.
