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Dr Brian Smith, Emeritus Reader in Physics, died on Tuesday 12 May after a long and courageous battle with Parkinson's Disease.

Brian was among the founder members of physics faculty, appointed in October 1962, so he made friends and contacts across the campus and was widely known and respected.

Within Physics, he was always in the vanguard of teaching innovations and over the years used a large range of teaching modes. He also supervised projects in the 1970s on such prescient topics as solar energy. He was the first physicist to introduce assessed coursework, when teaching the first-year core course 'Applied Physics and Energy' in the 1980s, and he used a variety of interesting group-teaching techniques in his management courses. It was therefore natural for him to be appointed as the University's Academic Teaching and Learning Co-ordinator for three years from 1989.

However, this was not his first university-wide job: he was Senior Proctor in the late '60s at a time of radicalism and sit-ins and subsequently Chairman of Community Services from 1970-76 when these services were really just developing; he laid sound foundations for the current system.

In 1989, Brian changed his interests towards management studies and set up the Science with Management Studies degree programme, which he ran single-handedly but very successfully for 10 years before passing it over to SPRU - Science and Technology Policy Research. He continued to teach some management courses in the School of Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Science (CPES) and for the Arts/Science programme until about 2003.

He had an excellent reputation as a teacher and was highly commended for a Sussex Teaching Award two years running. In 2001, he was awarded an Alumni Fellowship in recognition of his many contributions to the development of teaching. Later that year he joined the ILT (predecessor of the Higher Education Academy), after already acting as an accreditor for them.

He also worked as a specialist reviewer for the Quality Assurance Association (QAA) and became a member of the executive committee of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) in 1993 (and was put on its national roll of honour).

Within the department, Brian acted as Subject Chair and in 1995-96 was the one and only Director of MAPS after the formation of the School of Mathematical Sciences and in the run-up to the formation of CPES.

Outside university education, Brian was equally active, being on the executive committee of the South East Arts Council for more than 20 years and acting as a magistrate for 30 years (which led to his being involved in the training of magistrates, both in Sussex and in London). Latterly he had been writing a history of the University, which he was sadly unable to finish.

He was a delightful man, with a nice sense of humour that he retained throughout his illness. He will be much missed by his friends and former colleagues.

Dr Robert Smith, Emeritus Reader in Astronomy