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Dr Norman Davis
It is with great regret that we have to report that Norman Davis passed away from cancer on 8 May 2001 at the Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge. His final hours were peaceful, and his wife Angela was by his side. There was a celebration of his life, in Cambridge, on 16th May.Norman joined the SPRI Sea Ice Group as Senior Research Associate in 1989, having had an earlier research career as a biochemist which was cut short when he contracted muscular dystrophy. He overcame his disability to become a leading and stalwart member of the Group, as well as being Computer Manager for the Institute. His research focused on the interpretation of submarine data on sea ice thickness; his final publications, which came out late last year, were a chapter on sea ice in the book "The Arctic: Environment, People, Policy", and a joint paper with Peter Wadhams in Geophysical Research Letters showing that Arctic sea ice is now 40% thinner than 20 years ago. His contribution to science was substantial, as was his contribution to the supervision of placement and graduate students and to the extension of the University computer network to SPRI. He would have richly deserved a permanent position but one was never found for him and he gave 12 years of service to the Institute on soft money. He played an important role in the University's Committee for the Disabled, helping to get the needs of the disabled better recognised in the University, not least within SPRI itself.