On Friday 27th March, the Engineering Department will host a one-day meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical Society to mark the tenth anniversary of the death of Professor Sir David Mackay.
A much-missed Fellow of Darwin College, David was the University’s inaugural Regius Professor of Engineering, as well as serving as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
The event, dedicated to his memory, will consider both the urgent challenges of sustainable energy resources and the global opportunities arising from information technologies. It will address the two main themes of David’s work: machine learning, information theory and Bayesian inference, together with sustainable energy. There will be contributions from speakers who worked with David, build on his work in the field of energy and information, and share his values on the importance of clear and accessible communication.
David’s friend and colleague, Darwin Fellow Professor Alan Blackwell, recalls:
“Like many members of Darwin, David was always excited by conversations over lunch, in the parlour and gardens, advancing new theories, carrying out experiments, starting campaigns and inventing things.
We remember a wonderful friend who inspired (or if necessary, persuaded) other people to do things that they might not otherwise have done, and has got all of us to be a bit braver than we otherwise would have been.”
