Professor William A Sandham PhD BSc FIET MIEEE, July 1952 - August 2022

Bill, as he was always known to his many friends and colleagues, sadly passed away on 25 August 2022.   We will all miss his great sense of fun which he brought along with his conscientious dedication to both his professional and personal life. 

Bill was born in Toryglen, Glasgow, in July 1952 and his technical curiosity and good humour were soon apparent even as a child.  After initially helping in his family’s refrigeration business, his technical interests led him first to become an electrical engineer apprentice before taking his BSc Hons in electronic and electrical engineering at The University of Glasgow.

Next, he began a lifelong interest in biomedical engineering as Medical Physicist in Glasgow’s department of clinical physics and bioengineering from 1974 to 1976. A surprising degree of cross over between medical instrumentation and seismic surveying technology led Bill to pursue his PhD at the University of Birmingham, where he completed his thesis on Remote Sensing of the Ocean Surface as a research student/Fellow in 1981.

A stint as a Geophysical Programmer/Seismic Research Analyst followed providing Bill with the opportunity to use his skills in mathematics and physics, readily crossing disciplines and allowing his creative technical abilities to flourish, linked primarily by the expertise in signal processing that he could deploy to seismic, ultrasound, X-ray imaging and an array of other seemingly unrelated areas. 

Bill returned to Glasgow in 1980 as Senior Geophysical Programmer/ Research Analyst at the British National Oil Corporation and Britoil. Bill’s next post in 1986 was as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer then Reader at The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. First in the department of electronic and electrical engineering in the signal processing division and later as a Visiting Professor at the department of bioengineering. 

Bill was a natural teacher but also an extremely dedicated researcher, publishing over 200 journal papers and five books. He had many collaborations at institutions ranging from locations in Colombia, where he was also made Visiting Professor at the University of Javeriana, Bogota, to Birmingham, Liverpool, Southampton and other universities around the UK.  

Bill was an active member of the professional associations as a Fellow of the IET, a senior member of the IEEE and member of the EAGE and SEG which both related to his interest in geophysics. He also served on organising committees for ICASSP, EUSIPCO, MEDSIP and PG Biomed International conferences and others.

He was as instrumental in organising and attracting key global conferences to his beloved Glasgow, as he was in publishing conference papers at leading international seismic, signal processing and biomedical conferences around the world.  Bill was delighted to see the prestigious EMBC Biomedical Conference finally come to Glasgow this year having been instrumental in attracting it after relentlessly pursuing this aim for many years.

He was a key leader in developing wireless based seismic technology that a Scottish start-up, Vibtech, used to revolutionise the way geophysical seismic surveying was carried out. He also founded and ran a signal processing research, development and training company, ScotSig, and his professional skills were often deployed to arbitrate in legal face recognition cases and even the search for the Loch Ness monster using sonar. He reported, tactfully, that the search scan results were inconclusive. Bill’s creative technical mind also led to five patents.

Bill’s socialising had many connections to his professional life, and he had many other interests beyond those too. At Strathclyde he organised annual boat trips on the Waverley, the world’s oldest ocean-going paddle steamer ‘Doon the Watter’ in the Clyde estuary. He became proficient at banjo playing and with friends had a regular slot at the Oran Mor, a famous venue in an old church in Glasgow’s West end.  Those friends lucky enough to attend, still fondly recall, his Titanic Centenary Dinner with original first class menu and period costume. 

It seemed no challenge was too great, and he became a Himalayan 100-mile race competitor and a Comrades marathon runner in South Africa. Bill responded to a personal challenge from diabetes by becoming an expert and contributing world class research useful in its treatment. Diabetes UK became one of his favourite charities and would often benefit from events he organised or took part in. He also supported the charity Cancer Research UK.

Bill was always generous with his time, for his family, friends, his many PhD and undergraduate students and his colleagues. So many people, in so many places have fond memories of Bill, and we are all sad at his passing.