Sir William Weipers Memorial Lecture 2025

The 2025 Sir William Weipers Memorial Lecture, 'Clinics to campus: a veterinary tale of pain, pleasure and progress', will be delivered by Professor Andrea Nolan.

After four decades as a veterinary surgeon during periods of immense change, Andrea will reflect on the different but surprisingly complementary threads of her learning from work as a researcher in animal pain and a university leader to offer insights for the future.

Andrea Nolan is a retired veterinary surgeon, who led a varied career over four decades. She is also a sister, mother, grandmother and professor. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin, she spent a short time in veterinary practice and then embarked on an academic career in the University of Glasgow where she established herself as a research leader in the field of animal pain. Her senior leadership developed through roles including Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Senior Vice-Principal. In 2013 she was appointed Principal and Vice Chancellor of Edinburgh Napier University, a role she held for eleven years. During that time she also served as convenor of Universities Scotland, and served on a range of Boards and groups contributing to the development of Higher Education, research and animal welfare. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies and was awarded an Honorary CBE in 2024 for services to Higher Education.

The Sir William Weipers Memorial Lecture series was instigated in 1976 in recognition of the role that Sir William Weipers played in the establishment and development of veterinary medicine at the University of Glasgow.