Gordon Duff remembers a champion for science

Gareth Roberts was a distinguished research physicist who played a key role in keeping education and science at the top of the government’s agenda. President of Wolfson College, Oxford, at the time of his death, he was a strong and charismatic leader, capable of achieving a consensus where others could not.

The son of a quarryman, Roberts was born in 1940 in Penmaenmawr, North Wales. Raised in a Welsh-speaking home, he learnt English at school and attended chapel every Sunday. From the John Bright Grammar School in Llandudno, he progressed to the University College of North Wales at Bangor, gaining a First in Physics in 1961, followed by a PhD in the nascent field of semiconductor physics.

By the age of 34 he held the chair of physics in the New University of Ulster at Coleraine. In 1976 he moved to Durham University, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1984.

In 1990 he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University, a role in which he was strikingly successful. His personal qualities of integrity and fairness engendered trust, and enabled him to implement far-sighted policies – for example, widening social access to the university – with strong support from all the faculties.

Many of his initiatives had their origins in Roberts’s ‘Town and Gown’ dinners, which he hosted with his wife, Carolyn, at their university residence. On these evenings, guests took part in much-enjoyed quizzes (which invariably included the question, ‘In what year did Cardiff win the FA Cup?’).

Campaigning against cuts

In 1995 Roberts was elected Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, now known as Universities UK. His two-year term of office was among the most turbulent on record, as the CVCP collided with the government over its continuing cuts in university funding. Led by Roberts, the CVCP joined forces with the campus unions to mount a vigorous campaign to make the political parties and the public aware of the financial plight of the universities.

The resulting Dearing Inquiry into Higher Education, commissioned in 1996, drew heavily on input from the CVCP. The New Labour government accepted many of the principles in the 1997 Dearing Report, building on the key recommendation that the costs of higher education should be shared among those who benefit.

Roberts then joined the Board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). He was a powerful advocate for research funding for universities, while his detailed review of the Research Assessment Exercise – the vehicle through which universities receive much of their research income – was presented to the UK’s four higher-education funding bodies in 2004.

Gareth Roberts chaired the Research Careers Initiative (1997-2002), aimed at enhancing the working conditions, training and employment opportunities of over 37,000 contract research staff in UK universities and colleges.

SET for Success

His pragmatic approach led to an invitation from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, to undertake a comprehensive review of the supply of skilled scientists needed to support a competitive modern economy. Roberts’s report SET for Success, published in 2002, highlighted the serious shortages in the funding and supply of scientists, engineers and mathematicians in UK schools and universities, and the steps needed to remedy the situation. The government gave its full backing to his report, investing £1.25bn in science and technology at all levels.

Roberts was an inspirational President of the Institute of Physics (1998–2000) and the driving force behind the foundation of the Science Council, launched in 2000. Last year, he was appointed Chairman of the Engineering and Technology Board.

Science in schools

In recent years, Roberts became increasingly involved in promoting the study of science and technology in schools. He chaired and reorganised both the Network of Science Learning Centres and Setnet, the DTI-sponsored body responsible for school science enrichment, and was President of the Association of Science Education. An engaging (and humorous) public speaker, he presented the Royal Institution/BBC Christmas Lectures in 1988, on ‘Science and Technology in the Home of the Future’.

There was an endearing Welshness about Gareth Roberts – he lost neither the lilt in his voice nor the deep love he felt for his homeland. At all times his family came first. He was a life-long and loyal supporter of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

When cancer was diagnosed towards the end of last year, Roberts continued with fortitude and equanimity in the same organised and dignified way in which he had conducted his entire life. He was working at home up until the very end.

Sir Gordon Duff is Florey Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Sheffield