Dr Ian Duncan BVMS, PhD, RFCVS, FRCPath, FRSE (61-66)

Merchiston was honoured to welcome Dr Ian Duncan in May 2006, to conduct a seminar for the Sixth Form Biology class. Ian has been elected to a Corresponding Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and is only the 13th Merchistonian to be so honoured, and only the 4th of the 20th Century intake to Merchiston.

Ian holds the Chair of Neurology in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Veterinary Medicine . His laboratory is involved in the worldwide Myelin Project, which aims to repair broken spinal cords, thus restoring movement to paralysed accident victims. Indeed, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society proudly announced the largest grant ever to Dr Duncan, who received the sum of $3.4 million to conduct research on the Society's nervous system repair and protection initiative, part of the Society's Promise 2010 Research Campaign.

Ian writes "My visit to Edinburgh was memorable in many ways, not only for induction into the Royal Society of Edinburgh - I had a great run in the Pentlands which brought back memories of all the time I spent roaming the hills. I have taken up triathlon late in life and it was a great training outing." We congratulate Ian most warmly on his remarkable achievement and wish him well with all future developments with the Myelin Project.

We are very grateful to Brian Thompson for conducting research on Merchistonian Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh:

T C Wyville Thomson 1842

JA Harrie-Brown 1854

B Hall-Blyth 1860

H B Baildon 1863

W L Calderwood 1874

A C Houston 1880

T S Patterson 1885

W E Evans 1895

R C Menzies 1899

W R D Fairbairn 1902

G F Boddie 1913

E G McEwen 1929

I D Duncan 1961