Edinburgh Napier University

TWO members of staff at Edinburgh Napier University have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Professor Bill Buchanan, head of the university’s Cyber Academy, is awarded an OBE, while Catherine Walker, curator of the Craiglockhart-based War Poets Collection, is awarded an MBE.

Professor Buchanan, from the School of Computing, has been recognised for his services to cyber security and innovation.

A Fellow of the British Computer Society, he is an international authority on cryptography, eHealth and the criminal use of hacking software. He has published more than 220 research papers and 27 academic books, and has won a string of awards for teaching and innovation.

He regularly advises governments and law enforcement agencies on cyber security, and his work has led directly to the creation of three highly successful Edinburgh-based spin-out companies: ZoneFox; Symphonic Trust; and Cyan Forensics.

A regular contributor to TV and radio discussions about technology and cyber security issues, he is passionate about promoting technology-driven innovation in Scotland and improving health and social care, and has a deep love of his home city of Edinburgh. 

Professor Buchanan said: “The award of an OBE is recognition for not just my own work but that of the Cyber Academy, and for the role my university, my School and the city has played in supporting that work. We have never had any barriers placed in our way, and have always received the required support, and the freedom, to develop our vision.

“We hope our work can continue to provide both economic and social impacts, and that cyber security can point the way to building new infrastructures which respect the rights of individuals while also protecting our societies.”

Catherine has been recognised for her services to education and heritage.

Her career began as an assistant with the City of Edinburgh Libraries and over the following years she worked in a series of public and academic libraries, including the Poultry Research Centre, the University of Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland.

In 1990, she was offered a post as library assistant at the Merchiston campus library at what was then Napier Polytechnic of Edinburgh.

The then University Librarian Rennie McElroy encouraged her to follow up her BA in sociology with the Open University by undertaking a post-graduate diploma in Library and Information Science, a Masters degree and a professional qualification. She was promoted to the post of campus library manager at Craiglockhart in 1996.

For more than 20 years part of her duties have included developing and promoting the War Poets Collection, which had been established in 1988. Catherine is Curator of the War Poets Collection and its associated permanent exhibition, which is based in the building where Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon first met a century ago. The exhibition offers an insight into war through the words and memories of officers, medical staff and relatives.

Catherine said: “I am absolutely delighted that my work with the War Poets Collection at Edinburgh Napier University has been recognised in this way, particularly at this special time, when the university commemorates the centenary of Craiglockhart War Hospital.

“It has been a great pleasure and an honour to be part of a team which values, preserves and promotes the important history of our Craiglockhart campus.”