A Highland scientist who developed technology used by US space agency Nasa has gone back to school to hail the impact of the teachers who inspired him.
Professor Iain Baikie said that two of his former chemistry teachers at Wick High School were instrumental in his development, describing good teachers as the “golden key to successful learning”.
The professor and his wife, Elena, founded Wick-based technology company KP Technology, which developed the Kelvin Probe, a scientific implement used by world-wide laboratories for measuring surface properties.
He has so far taken orders for the device from 500 customers across 35 countries, including space exploration, military, naval and research hubs, including Nasa.
As part of the Scottish Government’s “Inspiring Teachers” campaign, Professor Baikie recently returned to his old school, which he attended from 1972 to 1978, to meet up with now retired teachers Bill Bruce and Andy Sinclair.
He said: “I was a child of the space race, so this was a fundamental influence from an early age. My role models at school were my chemistry teachers and, in fact, my first notion of pursuing a science career was to teach.
“Both have warm personalities, cared about their pupils and were comfortable with letting children run their own experiments under supervision.
“I was encouraged to be inquisitive and, given such enthusiastic tutelage, I couldn’t but do well.”
The “Inspiring Teachers” campaign features individuals from Scottish business, industry, media and science, sharing their memories of the teachers who inspired them and helped them get where they are today.
Professor Baikie said: “Having the right teachers in schools provides the golden key to successful learning. Teachers need to be born leaders to inspire their classroom.
“I was lucky in that my chemistry teachers helped me at the start of my journey into science. Without the qualifications they helped me achieve, it would have been much harder to have experienced the range of opportunities I was later offered.
“Classroom teaching needs to be rigorously monitored to ensure that the teachers chosen to inspire our children and assist them in making career decisions are sufficiently well equipped to do so.”
Professor Baikie was awarded the prestigious Swan Gold Medal for 2015 by the Institute of Physics.