Alan Rodger obituary
My colleague Alan Rodger, who has died aged 68 of cancer, was not just a brilliant space scientist but, in his various roles for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), was also a wise and generous manager, mentor and educator.
When it comes to the effects of climate change, Antarctica is the canary in the coalmine, and Alan’s insight increased understanding in the environmental science community of the challenges posed by global warming.
Hired by the BAS as a technician straight from Manchester University, in 1972, he was regularly promoted until in 2004 he took charge of all science strategy. Shortly before retiring, he steered the institute through a period of great turbulence as interim director for a year from 2012.
Born in Norfolk, Alan was the son of Janet (nee Gibson Davidson), a clerk, and Richard Rodger, an accountant. After the family moved to Edinburgh he went to George Heriot’s school, then studied physics and electronic engineering at Manchester.
As a technician stationed at the Argentine Islands (now Vernadsky) for two years, Alan maintained BAS’s ionosondes (radio sounders used to monitor the ionosphere, the ionised upper atmosphere roughly 90-500km high). During this time he acquired the nickname of Florence, probably, in part, due to his shoulder-length curly hair, but also because he cared for a badly injured colleague when they were cut off in the middle of winter without a doctor. The nickname stuck.
Throughout his career Alan spotted talent and nurtured it. He did this, not just for his immediate colleagues, but for others such as myself in other laboratories around the world. I met him at my first conference as a PhD student and he showed me great kindness and interest, and introduced me to other scientists.
He met Mary Turton, a secretary, when they were working together at BAS. They married in 1979, and settled in the village of Girton, Cambridgeshire.
Alan received the Queen’s Polar Medal in 1987, and a Nasa group achievement award in 1998. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Manchester University in 1999 and a visiting professorship at the Aberystwyth University in 2007.
His interest in a wide range of science made him a fine editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics from 2014, and he was on the editorial board of Antarctic Science from 1997.
Alan also worked in schools education, and was vice-chair of the Cambridgeshire Schools Forum from 2005. He contributed greatly in the pressure to introduce what was initially called “fairer funding” for schools, which in 2016 became the national funding formula. He was chair of governors at Impington Village college, then a founding trustee of Morris Education
Trust.
When doing talks in schools he would take a complete set of Antarctic survival clothing – including boots and snowshoes – and ask the headteacher to dress up and try to walk around, to the great joy of the pupils. And there is the element that many will remember most – he had the most infectious and explosive of laughs. Alan made science fun.
He is survived by Mary, his sons,
Alex and Chris, and a granddaughter, Verity.