His career started as a lecturer in 1947 at the SW Essex Technical College. In 1948 he joined the MRC Vision Research Unit, and later the Opthalmological Research Unit. He joined the staff of the Institute of Opthalmology (1959), becoming Reader in Physiological Optics in 1964, Professor and Director of the Department of Visual Science in 1971 and Professor of Visual Science in 1978. His interests included the photochemistry of the retina, biophysics of the lens, optical illusions, colour vision etc. which spread into the history of art (he studied Art History under Sir Ernst Gombrich, and was the New Scientist's Art Correspondent from (1971-1978). He spent several stints in the USA as Visiting Professor, and was for eight years a consultant for WHO, when he visited a large number of developing countries. More recently, he has held an appointment as a Consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital. At present he is a Senior Research Fellow at both the Age Concern Institute of Gerontology at King's College London, and in the Eye Department of University College Hospital.
His current research interests cover studies of mortality, the epidemiology of ocular diseases, ageing aspects of the eye, and opthalmic instrumentation. He has published The Eye and its Function (1959), The Aging Eye (1963), From Sight to Light (1967), Focus on Vision (1982), A Biology of the Eye - Development, Growth, Age (1982), The Senescence of Human Vision (1992), and co-edited Techniques of Photo-Stimulation in Biology (1968) and The Epidemiology of Eye Diseases (1998); in addition to over 260 scientific papers and contributions to books.
He has been Chairman of the Athenaeum Talk Dinner Committee (1994-1998), a Member of the Hampstead Scientific Society since 1976, and their President since 1988. He holds the Livery of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, having received their Senior Award in 1963. His awards include the Newton Medal and Honorary Membership of the Colour Group of Great Britain.
Throughout his career, he has been a defence scientist, starting in 1944 with radar development for the Royal Navy, followed by guided missile development and then undersea warfare. The last 15 years of his career were spent in the Defence Ministry, responsible for defence research, electronics development, operational research studies for the Royal Navy and the procurement of weapons and electronic equipment for the Army and the Royal Air Force.
He was Honorary Secretary of the Hampstead Scientific Society from 1974 to 1990, when he became Honorary Treasurer. He was Editor and then Secretary of the Eagle Ski Club from 1986 to 1995.
Angus Arthur McKenzie first joined the society as a boy of 14. He was extremely interested in astronomy from an early age, and was given so much encouragement by Henry Wildey in the late 40s. He joined the British Astronomical Assoc. when in his middle teens, and has been a member ever since. He was born in September 1933, and was educated at St. Paul's School, Hammersmith. He went on to City and Guilds to study electronic engineering and acoustics, but failing sight led him to leave at the end of his second year. He went blind in 1959. He has had a career in audio and radio, running a recording studio at first, then later becoming an audio and radio consultant. He has engineered or produced many recordings of classical music, and has carried out much research into stereo, binaural and quadraphonic sound. He has written professional papers, and has given many lectures on various subjects. He has been a writer on many topics, including audio, radio, amateur radio, and classical music. He has broadcast both on radio and television, and has authored many books on hi fi, and amateur radio.
He was awarded the M.B.E. in 1979 for his audio work, and his charity work for the blind.
His main interests are astronomy, physics, railways, classical music, hi fi, radio and travel. He joined Mensa in 1965, and runs classical music evenings for Mensa every month.
He is devoted to his young guide dog Ward, with whom he trained in December 1997.
Having taken a BA in Geography and an MSc in Meteorology and Applied Climatology, both at the University of Birmingham, he spent three years on the technical staff at the university, helping to establish the Edgbaston Observatory as an essential aid to post-graduate teaching. Between 1976 and 1983 he was employed by private-sector weather-forecasting companies, providing services primarily for the oil industry, and was therefore posted variously to sites in the North Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Arabian Gulf.
Subsequently, he has run his own successful weather consultancy, providing meteorological and climatological information to a variety of clients, chiefly in the print and broadcast media. He was the on-air forecaster with LBC (London's independent speech radio station) between 1983 and 1993, and with BBC Radio 5-Live since then. He is also (since 1986) the weather correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph, and has fulfilled the same function for the Daily Telegraph since 1995.
He has been the Honorary Secretary of the Meteorological Section of the Hampstead Scientific Society since 1983, a council member then press officer of the Royal Meteorological Society since 1987, and editor of the RMS's journal Weather between 1986 and 1992. He has written three books on the subject, and he was presented with the RMS's Michael Hunt Award in 1993 in recognition of his successes in popularising meteorology.
Last updated by j.a.atkinson@lineone.net 18-Apr-2000