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The end of an iSchool era



Friday, 20th December marks the end of an era for the Information School. Our very own Professor Peter Willett is retiring, having joined the department following the completion of his MA in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) from Oxford University in 1975. At the time, the School was known as the Postgraduate School of Librarianship and Information Science and Peter studied for an MSc in Information Science. Following the completion of his MSc, Peter undertook a PhD on the indexing of chemical reactions and post-doctoral work on the automatic classification of document databases. Peter was appointed to a lecturership in 1979, was awarded a personal chair in 1991 and a DSc in 1997.

We are privileged that Professor Willett has spent his entire professional career here in the School.

Professor Willett reminisces, “It was a very different world.  In 1975, one could go through one's entire primary, secondary and tertiary education without going anywhere near a computer, so it came as a bit of a shock to find that computer programming was a core module for the MSc course. This involved the use of punched cards that were loaded by specially trained operators into the university computer (yes, THE university computer) hidden away on the top storey of the Hicks Building, with the output produced a few hours later in the form of fan-folded line printer paper.”

“It wasn't just the technology; the School itself was very different too from what it is now. We had ten academic and three professional services staff supporting about 50 PGT students and about half a dozen PhD students. All of us were housed in three rather splendid Victorian houses opposite the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. Money was different too: my first research grant, in 1982, was for a two-year PDRA project and was worth just £24,200; and you could travel by bus anywhere in South Yorkshire for the princely sum of 12p.”

“I have been extremely lucky in spending my entire career in a wonderfully friendly, supportive and intellectually stimulating environment: it's been a pleasure and a privilege to work here, and I wish you all the very best for the future.”

Peter's contribution to the School has been immeasurable and this truly does feel like the end of an era. However, I am delighted to say that the University will be conferring the title of Emeritus Professor on Peter from Jan 2020 in recognition of his "most distinguished services and contribution to the Information School". I’m also delighted to say that Peter will still be involved with the School on an ad-hoc basis for the foreseeable future.

I’m sure that staff and students both past and present will join me in wishing Professor Willett all the best for his retirement and in congratulating him on his most deserved title.

Professor Val Gillett
Head of School
The Information School, The University of Sheffield.

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