Scott Lang Dinner 2015

Peter Redford Scott Lang (1850-1926) was a Professor of Mathematics at St Andrews University from 1879 until his retirement in 1921. He had studied at Edinburgh University, and taught there before being appointed to St Andrews. Having seen the “ordinary student fare of the mid nineteenth century and menus of term time dinners” he instigated the institution of ‘Common Dinners’ in the 1880s.

Scott Lang dinner 2015

Scott Lang dinner 2015

The original purpose of the dinners was to enable students to have a “decent and varied diet,” but ended up meaning much more than that to some.  In 1926, L.J.D. Gibson wrote this about the dinners:

The Common Dinners were of the greatest service in the bringing the men together … Modern St Andrews owes a great debt to Professor Lang … was so invaluable in fostering the social life of the university.
Ruth Hoffmann, Viktoriya Anisimova, Gala Malbasic, Cameron Wright and Steve Linton (HOS)

Computer Scientists: Ruth Hoffmann, Viktoriya Anisimova, Gala Malbasic, Cameron Wright and Steve Linton (HOS)

The lavish common dinners fell out of favour during the war period and have only been recently reintroduced to St Andrews. In 2015 the dinner was held on the 14th April in Lower College Hall. The dinner is designed to encourage interaction across interests in all areas of the University community and is open to all staff and students.
Aleksejs Sazonovs (school president), Ruth Hoffman, Keno Schwalb, Aaron Quigley (DoR) and Cameron Wright

Aleksejs Sazonovs (school president), Ruth Hoffman, Aaron Quigley (DoR), Keno Schwalb and Cameron Wright

In 2015, the School of Computer Science invited its class representatives and student president to dine with the head of school, Professor Steve Linton and Director of Research, Professor Aaron Quigley at the annual Scott Lang Dinner. This was to thank the students for their service to their fellow students, the school and to the University. Everyone had a wonderful evening and it was a great opportunity to learn more about each other outside the school. We hope this is the start of a new and long lasting tradition for our staff and students.

Thanks to Xu Zhu who also attended for the images (CC by-SA 3.0 license).