Annual General Meeting

106th SAMS Annual General Meeting: 4 December 2020

The ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Association will be held online on Friday 4 December 2020 at 15.15 hrs. This year, due to he current Covid-19 restrictions in place, we are unable to host he meeting as normal in the WSB Conference Room. However, we very much welcome Members of the Association joining by virtual means and I would ask you to register your attendance by emailing the Membership Secretary to receive a Microsoft TEAMS meeting link and joining instructions. Below is the notice of the AGM with links to minutes and the statutory accounts to 31 March 2020. The Annual Report will be available (here) at a later date but ahead of the AGM.

I regret that due to the current Covid-19 restrictions we will not be hosting the Newth Lecture in 2020.

Yours faithfully

Professor Nicholas J P Owens
Director SAMS

Notice of the one hundred and sixth annual general meeting

Notice is hereby given that the 106^th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association will be held on-line on Friday 4th December 2020 at 15.15 hrs to transact the following business:

1. To confirm the minutes of the 105^th Annual General Meeting held on 6^th December 2019: SAMS AGM 2019 minutes

2. To receive the report of the SAMS Board and the audited accounts for the year ended 31^st March 2020: 2019-20 SAMS group statutory accounts

3. To approve amendments to the Articles of Association: 2020 draft amendments to Articles of Association SAMS

4. To re-elect Vice Presidens: Professor Andrew Hamnett and Professor Geoffrey Boulton

5. To elect member of the SAMS Board of the Association and to consider election of additional members (see note 1). New members - none. To note retiring members: Mr Mark Batho

6. To note the continuing appointment of external auditors Saffrey Champness

7. To receive a presentation and report from the Director on developments in the year.

8. To transact any other competent business of the Association

 By order of the SAMS Board

Secretary (Professor Axel E J Miller)

Registered Office: Scottish Marine Institute; Oban; Argyll PA37 1QA
13th November 2020

Note 1: Any nominations for the election of Members of the SAMS Board must be made in writing by three members qualified to attend and vote at the AGM and (together with written confirmation from the nominated person that he or she is willing to serve) must be submitted to the Secretary no fewer than 10 and no more than 21 days prior to the AGM. These provisions do not apply to nominees who are (a) a Member of the SAMS Board retiring at the AGM or (b) recommended by the SAMS Board for election. A current list of nominees may be obtained from the Secretary. Voting papers (proxy / postal) for SAMS

Annual Newth Lecture

Since 1990, SAMS has held an annual lecture to commemorate former SAMS President and Glasgow University Professor of Zoology, David Richmond Newth FIBiol FRSE. This is held by an esteemed academic following from the AGM. In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, no lecture will be held.

Who was Professor David Newth?

David Newth had a distinguished scientific career at the interface between biology and medicine.

Initially David was at University College, London, and the Middlesex Hospital School. From 1965 to 1981 he was Regius Professor of Zoology at the University of Glasgow. He was a most urbane individual, excellent company and a wonderful raconteur.

In his six years of office, David Newth steered the Association with a strong and sure hand. Thereafter he served as a Vice-President until his death on 5 June 1988 at the age of 66.

The late Professor Alasdair D. McIntyre (SAMS President 1988-1993, SAMS Vice President 1993-2009) described David thus:

"David Newth was a distinguished scientist, a fair-minded and effective administrator, a man who was both strong and gentle in his approach to the challenges of his professional life. He did not flinch from difficult decisions yet took them with an understanding that inflicted least hurt. He was both an idealist and pragmatist and both of these aspects of his personality I saw displayed when he was a member of the Nature Conservancy Council. If David's spirit could be reincarnated in animal form then, given his love of cats, I imagine it as a tiger, applying the right amount of strength and energy appropriate to the occasion – but having enough in reserve to cope with the unexpected. And it was good to watch him in action. He served our Association with great distinction and with a sense of tradition in which he took a pride."

List of past Newth lectures

• >2019 Associate Professor Ibon Cancio (Plentzia Marine Station University of the Basque Country): Scientia potentia est and marine biology is the proof. View here...
• >2018 Steven Hall (Society for Underwater Technology): Blue Future: how new technology is going to change our relationship with the global ocean. View here...
• >2017 Professor Colin Moffat (Head of Marine Scotland Science): A day at the seaside, a life with our seas. View here....
• >2016 Professor John Spicer (Plymouth University): Plankton of the sea and of the mind. When Hardy met Garstang
• >2015 Professor Jane Francis (British Antarctic Survey): When the polar regions were green - fossil plants reveal the climate history of the Arctic and Antarctica
• >2014 Dr Patricio Bernal (International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile): Oceanography and Ocean Policy: What are the links
• >2013 Professor Geoffrey Boulton (SAMS President): The Open Science Imperative and its Implications for Oceanography
• >2012 Professor Lora Fleming (Director, European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the Royal Cornwall Hospital): Oceans and human health: A new area of interdisciplinary science 
• >2011 Professor Gideon Henderson (University of Oxford): Ironing the Ocean: the critical role of metals for ocean ecosystems and the global carbon cycle
• >2010 Dr Paul Tett (SAMS): Modelling for Science and Policy: From Loch Striven to the European Court of Justice
• >2009 Professor Toby Sherwin (SAMS): Charting the circulation of the North Atlantic: the legacy of David Ellett
• >2008 Professor Laurence Mee (Director of SAMS): "Quo vadis mare nostrum? Systems science for sustainable seas
• >2007 Professor Tom Crowley (Director of SAGES, University of Edinburgh): A geologist's perspective on global warming and energy options
• >2006 Professor Julian Dowdeswell (Director: Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge): Ice and environmental change
• >2005 Professor Michel Kaiser (Bangor University): Can't see the fishermen for the fish: net benefits demand a wider perspective
• >2004 Professor Chris German (SOC): Hydrothermal exploration can lead you a long way: Oases for life in distant oceans
• >2003 Dr Phil Williamson (NERC/UEA): Is marine management a myth?
• >2002 Dr Joanna Oliver (ECMB): Biotechnology meets the sea – a recipe for success
• >2001 Professor Peter Wadhams (SPRI): Convective chimneys in the Greenland Sea
• >2000 Professor Graham Shimmield (SAMS): Marine Science Plan for Europe: Issues to be addressed
• >1999 Professor John Harwood (SMRU): Marine mammals in the 21 st century: will habitat loss be a problem?
• >1998 Professor John S Gray (University of Oslo): The oil and gas industry and the North Sea environment. Lessons from Norway?
• >1997 Professor Harry Elderfield (University of Cambridge): Sea floor hot springs and ocean aquifers
• >1996 Professor John HS Blaxter (SAMS Honorary Fellow): Enhancing marine fish stocks
• >1995 Professor Steve A Thorpe (SOC): Marine dispersion: from parsnips to oil and yellow plastic ducks
• >1994 Sir Graham Hills (former Principal, University of Strathclyde): The University of the Highlands and Islands: A university of the future.
• >1993 Dr Eileen Buttle (NERC): The government white paper on science, engineering and technology: The challenge to Scottish marine science
• >1992 Professor George M Dunnet (University of Aberdeen): Scottish Natural Heritage and the marine environment
• >1991 Dr John H Steele (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution): Are we marine organisms?
• >1990 Professor Sir Frederick Holliday: Conserving conservation