Sir Geoff’s handprints cast for posterity
Next month there will be a ceremony at the City Chambers when Professor Sir Geoff Palmer will be honoured with the Edinburgh Award.
He has just had his handprints cast in clay ahead of the being set in stone in the quadrangle along with others who have received the award before him. The emeritus professor’s name will be inscribed in gold on the honour panel in the City Chambers and he will be presented with a Loving Cup by the Rt Hon Lord Provost, Robert Aldridge.
The Lord Provost said: “In a career spanning over fifty years, Sir Geoff Palmer has made an indelible mark on the life sciences and is a shining example to the world of Edinburgh’s academic prowess, force, and rigour.
“Alongside his academic achievements Sir Geoff has been instrumental in examining Edinburgh’s past and helping us collectively move forward as a city. The Edinburgh Award will go some way towards recognising his celebrated career and I look forward to the official unveiling and ceremony next month.”
Sir Geoff Palmer has impressions taken in clay of his hands which will then be engraved in stone by Leigh Bradley of The Colin Braid Stone Workshop as part of him being given The Edinburgh Award this year.
Sir Geoff Palmer, Professor Emeritus and Chancellor of Heriot Watt University, said: “This award is more than a great honour; it is a recognition of all the people whose goodness has contributed to my life and work. I arrived in Edinburgh as a research student in 1964 and I thank the City of Edinburgh Council for all it has done for the community.”
Sir Geoff has a long association with Edinburgh, he first arrived in the capital in 1964 to pursue a PhD in Grain Science and Technology jointly with the then Heriot-Watt College and the University of Edinburgh.
Upon completion of his doctorate in 1967 he began working at the Brewing Research Foundation where he developed the industrial process of Barley Abrasion and pioneered the use of the Scanning Electron Microscope to study cereal grains.
In 1977, he returned to Heriot-Watt University as a staff member and gained a DSc degree for his research work in 1985. In 1989 he became the first black professor in Scotland and remained in Edinburgh until his retirement in 2005. In 2021 he was appointed Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University.
He was knighted in 2014 for services to human rights, science and charity. He was also appointed as Jamaica’s first Honorary Consul in Scotland and received the Jamaican national honour the Order of Distinction (Commander Class) in 2020.
