A memorial event for evolutionary biologist Professor John Maynard Smith, who died last month at the age of 84, will take place in the Meeting House on Saturday 26 June. Colleagues from Sussex attended his funeral in Lewes on Tuesday (4 May).

News of John's death prompted two of his former students to contact the Bulletin with their memories.

"I arrived at Sussex in October 1965 and was thus one of the new students to be addressed in turn by the new Deans of the newly formed (and almost built) science schools.

John Maynard Smith's talk has stayed with me all these years. He certainly looked like the image of a professor, but he was understandable by a rather disoriented 18-year-old.

At the end of his talk he wanted to get across that he was approachable as Dean. He invited anyone who wanted to see him to pop along to his office and have a word. He then paused for effect, and added the comment that if anyone found his (new) office could they let him know as he was still looking for it himself."

Stephen Carter, Physics 1965-68

"He was a great man and he lived a wonderful and inspiring life.

It's only in retrospect that I realise how much he influenced me when I was a student, and has continued to do so. He was such a gracious person, and he always had time for everyone, even snotty-nosed little undergraduates who did as little work as possible (until they met him, of course, and were inspired to learn because he made it so exciting).

Will I ever inspire any of my students at the University of Exeter, even to a very small extent? If I do, it will be because of his example."

Dr Christine Caldwell, Human Sciences 1976-80