Tribute to Emeritus Professor Roy Davies (1940 – 2024)
I’m sure many of you are aware of Roy’s involvement with the British Machine Vision Association (or BMVA); I suspect you will also know that “involvement” falls far short. It is my privilege to say a few words today, on behalf of the Association, to express our immense gratitude and share happy memories of our longest serving committee member who touched the lives of so many vision researchers across the UK and beyond.
Roy’s book on “Machine Vision: Theory, Algorithms, Practicalities” was published in 1990. Currently in its third edition, and Roy was talking of a fourth, it is the use of “practicalities” right in the title that many of us most associate with the book and much of Roy’s work. Roy’s research group in this field was founded at a time when one had to first build a computer before starting to try to perform vision; this thought to actually getting things to work was a hallmark of his focus.
The publication in 1990 coincided with the formal founding of the BMVA and, over the years, Roy was a stalwart supporter, not just of the BMVA, but of the growing vision community itself. The citation for his award of Distinguished Fellow, in 2005, noted his substantial research contribution (making sense of data and images through negotiation of noise and clutter in a systematic manner - recognised by his Doctor of Science award by the University of London in 1996) but also spoke of his standing and popularity across the community. It has been pointed out that this was self-evident though the simple fact that he had examined over 100 PhD students; perhaps what might be less obvious, given the rapid expansion of the field in recent times, is that this represented a significant percentage of all the vision researchers in the UK!
His activities extended beyond the association, including work with the IEE (as it was then) and serving on many editorial boards (Pattern Recognition Letters, Real-time Imaging, etc…). Roy had so many roles and activities; members of the committee have been kindly sharing their memories with me over the last few weeks. There are too many to mention them all but two key activities in particular stand out because they reached the largest numbers. Roy was an ardent teacher; training and supporting the next generation of researchers. This was clearly evidenced his text books, but also by the low-level vision course given at the annual summer school; each new generation was introduced to the field by a friendly and welcoming face, always willing to sit with students and share stories alongside his research insights. As academics, being entrusted with guiding the minds of new researchers is our greatest responsibility and Roy exemplified this with lessons for us all to take to heart and a high bar to aspire to. An approachable and cheerful demeanour, with a gentle introduction to difficult concepts, made him a “class act” (as my Grandfather would have said).
The second role I would particularly like to highlight was serving as Editor of BMVA News. My predecessor, Adrian Clark, wrote of long train journeys with Roy discussing the archival journal and ideas to innovate and improve polices for the benefit of the community; Roy with endless enthusiasm and ideas. Through the newsletter, he was again the first point of contact with the BMVA for many; his years of experience were invaluable. Both the current Secretary and Treasurer have written of his kindness and the patience shown to them by Roy; along with his cat herding abilities to keep everyone on track!
The Association must move on without Roy to keep us in check; we will do our utmost to live up to him and honour his work. I will, personally, miss most his editorials from the newsletter. Always insightful (from his years of experience), always wide-ranging (including thoughts and ideas from his broad areas of reading) but, in particular, always kind-hearted and with the humour of a wry smile within their lines.
Roy, like many others on the committee, would be well aware of my proclivity for talking for too long so I shall leave it there and look forward to sharing more stories after the service. Our heartfelt thanks to Joan and Roy’s family for sharing him with us; his legacy will long endure across the vision community and we will always treasure the fond memories of the time spent with Roy.
(Neill Campbell, Royal Holloway Chapel, April 2024)