Tributes have been paid to Professor Alastair Dawson, formerly of the geography department, who passed away at the end of May 2025.
Alastair Dawson was a graduate of the University of Aberdeen and went on to study for an MSc at Louisiana State University (LSU) and later a PhD at the University of Edinburgh.
He joined Coventry University in 1980 and in 1998 became Professor of Quaternary Science.
Professor Dawson joined the University of Aberdeen in 2005 as Senior Research Fellow/Honorary Professor within the Aberdeen Institute for Coastal Science and Management (AICSM) and latterly its Deputy Director and Director, assuming the role of the late Professor William Ritchie. In 2013, he became an Honorary Professor in Geography at the University of Dundee.
He was an international expert in coastal processes, coastal management, climate change and tsunami working with many well-known academics in the field both internationally and in Scotland. In 2004, Professor Dawson’s public profile was raised when he appeared in the media as an expert commentator, following the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004. Professor Dawson went on to serve on the International Tsunami Commission as the UK representative for many years. In 2009, he published: So Foul and Fair a Day: A History of Scotland's Weather and Climate.
Professor David Green, who worked closely with Professor Dawson in the AICSM, said: “Alastair played a prominent role – alongside Professor William Ritchie - in the Department of Geography and AICSM at the University of Aberdeen and made a considerable contribution to teaching and research work centred around the study of coastal studies - particularly tsunami - and various coastal projects over the years. It was a great pleasure to work with Alastair whom I had known when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Edinburgh where he was my demonstrator in practical classes.
“He was a highly accomplished colleague whose research will endure and was always very helpful and kind to everyone he worked with. He will be very sadly missed, and our thoughts are with his family at this sad time.”