29-04-2025
- Science
- The Herald Scotland
Celebrating Glasgow's dizzying array of research
Over the course of Glasgow's evolution, one of the key threads is research. Researchers working across the city have made dozens of world-changing breakthroughs.
The Industrial Revolution was sparked by James Watt's improvements to the Newcomen steam engine, helping to create the world we live in now.
Joseph Lister's pioneering use of antiseptics in surgery during the 19th century helped lay the path to modern medicine, while Ian Donald's development of ultrasound in the 1950s revolutionised prenatal care.
Chemist Frederick Soddy's development of the concept of isotopes, which changed the way we understand atoms and helped underpin the development of nuclear energy, won him the Nobel Prize in 1921.
As director of the Glasgow Science Festival since its inception, I've been playing my part in celebrating the city every year by helping academics working today provide visitors with insights into the past, present and future of research in Glasgow.
This year's festival is our 19th event. Over the course of the last two decades, I've had the privilege of watching the city's researchers achieve new breakthroughs, as universities invested in their campuses to enable new developments and industries including life sciences and the space sector grew and developed in and around Glasgow.
During my time as director of the festival, researchers from the University of Glasgow played a key role in the historic first detection of gravitational waves – ripples in spacetime caused by massive cosmic events like the collisions of black holes.
City researchers have pioneered new methods of personalising medicine to help achieve better care for people affected by diseases like cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. They have developed cutting-edge new materials to create flexible sensors for applications including healthcare monitoring. They are working to establish the ultrafast 6G communications networks of the future, and to harness advanced photonics for use in quantum technologies, sensing, security and more.
Through the University of Glasgow-led GALLANT project, they are also working to use the city as a living lab to find new ways for urban environments to adapt to the climate crisis.
There's a dizzying array of other research going on across Glasgow, covering everything from AI to zoology. The city's future as a leader in science seems certain.
As we complete our preparations for this year's festival in June, I'm excited to be showcasing depth and breadth of the city's research in this historic year. But, I'm just as excited for the festivals to come, where we'll be continue to bring people together to celebrate new developments as well as reflect on past achievements.
Dr Deborah McNeill of the University of Glasgow is director of the Glasgow Science Festival. This year's festival runs from June 5-15 at venues across the city.
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