He was enrolled in St Salvator’s College in the University of St Andrews at the age of 13, and it is suspected that he left Scotland to further his education in mainland Europe.

After feeling Poland, and later France, he joined the remnants of the Polish armed forces on the East coast of Scotland. While stationed in St Andrews, he designed, tested, and refined his landmine detector in response to a competition run by the British army for the development of such a device. His innovation was blew away the competition and has saved countless lives since its first use in 1941.

He was the first to state and prove a version of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus and was the first to write a textbook concerning Calculus, which is why calculus was taught at St Andrews a hundred years before it was on the curriculum at the University of Cambridge.

While he was principal of the University of St Andrews, he oversaw many projects such as the restoration of St Salvator’s Chapel and the reorganisation of United College finances. Similarly, he made important reforms at the University of Edinburgh during his time there as professor of natural philosophy.

In his 84 years he was a printer, a postmaster, an ambassador, an author, a scientist, a philosopher, a writer, a statesman and, above all, an inventor. By the age of 11, he was inventing solutions to common problems, including a ‘Long Arm’ to grab books from the top shelf and swimming fins to help him swim more easily.

In St Andrews, Brewster experimented eagerly to refine photographic techniques. Among others, he developed the “lenticular stereoscope”, which was more practical than that invented by Charles Wheatstone. Stereoscopes create the illusion of a 3D image, using understanding of the human ability to see two different perspectives with each eye. The fusion of these images is crucial for our spatial perception. 

Born in Brechin, Angus, in 1892, Watson-Watt studied for a degree in engineering from University College, Dundee, then part of the University of St Andrews. After graduation, he went to work for the Meteorological Office, and in 1935 began the development of what today we refer to as radar. He successfully demonstrated its effectiveness in detecting aircraft, and soon a network of radar stations dotted the UK coastline. His invention may have been the deciding factor in Britain surviving the German onslaught by air during the Battle of Britain in 1940.

Black earned his degree in 1946, and a few years later, in 1950 he founded a physiology department at the University of Glasgow Veterinary School. He continued to teach in other universities until 1958, when he joined the Imperial Chemical Industries, working as a senior pharmacologist.