Jim Campbell OBE
DR WARREN MANNING: And now we come to our Honorary Award. These are awarded by the University in recognition of somebody who's made a very significant contribution in their particular field. I now have great pleasure in inviting Ms Louise Pigden, Deputy Dean of the College of Science and Engineering, to give the commendation for the conferment of the Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University to James Campbell.
LOUISE PIGDEN: Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, honoured guests and graduands, it gives me great pleasure to be presenting today Jim Campbell OBE for the award of Honorary Doctor of the University.
Jim is a forensic scientist whose inventions have revolutionised medical diagnoses. He started his family-run business, SureScreen in Derby in 1991, which now sells rapid tests to over 70 different countries to diagnose diseases, illnesses or drug abuse, and which also supplied millions of rapid Coronavirus tests during the recent Covid-19 pandemic.
Jim works with his three sons Alex, Alastair, and David who are here supporting him today. Jim has made a remarkable contribution to the diagnostics and healthcare industry in the UK. He was one of the early pioneers of rapid diagnostics in Europe, using immunoassay technology which includes pregnancy tests, feminine care, infectious diseases, alcohol, illicit drug use, and various health markers such as cancer markers. These technologies have delivered massive strides forward in the efficiency of patient testing in the healthcare industry.
During his early career, Jim worked in the forensic lab at the Home Office in Nottingham. However, he also became expert in solving engineering problems for industry after working at Northern Engineering Industries, and later CoMech Metrology in Derby. His expertise in materials, metallurgy, and engineering has been instrumental in thousands of companies solving their technical problems from Formula One teams to automotive, construction, engineering, power and utilities, pharmaceuticals, and food production companies.
In his forensic work, Jim has taken on thousands of high-profile cases including murder, terrorism, missing persons, battery, theft, and burglary. Jim wrote the specification for UK offender tags enabling many thousands of individuals access to probation and to be reintroduced into society while under curfew.
He's become one of the country's most eminent experts on offender tagging. In the drug and alcohol field, Jim pioneered the use of hair testing for alcohol and drugs, a new and novel technique at the time in the early 1990s, the technology allowed for a whole new area of analysis and a much greater control over illicit drug use.
Jim's working diagnostics has also entered Ecology, being an early pioneer for environmental DNA testing. The use of this technology enables ecologists to replace time-consuming surveys for endangered wildlife with cutting-edge DNA testing from samples taken in the species habitat. SureScreen Scientifics has partnered with the University for many years now and offers testing for white-clawed crayfish, great crested newts and bats and water voles.
SureScreen has been at the front-line of the fight against Covid-19. Manufacturing tens of millions of antigen tests for the UK Government and exporting tests to 53 countries around the world. In the 25th anniversary of the company, SureScreen Diagnostics has this summer opened a new manufacturing facility in the region and is set to create a thousand new jobs.
Jim has a long history of working with the University across the entire College of Science and Engineering delivering talks to students, working on multiple collaborative research projects across different disciplines, and offering his facilities and equipment to help students with their learning.
Jim was awarded an OBE in 2019 for his services to healthcare and the community in Derbyshire.
Chancellor, in recognition of the breadth of Jim's contributions to society through his many endeavours and achievements in the fields of industry, scientific innovation, healthcare, and the environment, we are delighted to award Jim Campbell the Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University.
JIM CAMPBELL OBE: Wow, Thank you. To the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Lord Lieutenant, Mayor of Derby, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen and graduands of 2021.
I owe Derby University a lot. I went into the Sixth Form at school, and I found it wasn't for me. I couldn't understand why I had to learn things I would never need to know in my life. So, I took a job at the Home Office in Scenes of Crimes. I was the first person they took on without any qualifications and I found I needed to have my degree to take my cases to court as an expert. So I had to go back to school. Hence in 1969 to 1971, I went to what was then Derby Tech, you now know it as KR, I think. Then it was just the North Tower and the East Tower. The North Tower was Sciences and mostly lads and the East Tower was Art and mostly girls. So, the concourse that linked them together was obviously a very busy place but the teachers there were fantastic. They were absolutely brilliant. They inspired me and my exam results there were some of the best in my year. So, the door to university that I'd chosen to close by leaving school was suddenly opened for me again by Derby College.
And now as an expert in forensics, I've attended court over 500 times which is quite a lot even for my profession and it's included courts over the whole country including some well-known ones such as the Old Bailey and the Royal Courts of Justice and I've had some really juicy cases and some well-known ones too, but I can't tell you about those.
And yes, I did learn a lot at college and at university that I've never needed to use, but I missed the point. Education isn't just about raw facts. Yes, some are really vital, but they're used to hone your skills, to enhance your memory, to enhance your planning, to do researching in a proper way, to reason things out, and it teaches you that you have to stick to a job until it's done and do it to the best of your ability and doing those things you succeed in life.
Now, as then, the University of Derby does this in such a great way. It's equipped you with these skills to go out and make your own way in the world, to lead and to do great things. You are part of an exclusive club.
As your career develops, I hope you will keep in touch, provide support and praise the name of the University of Derby for which you can be justly proud. It changed my life for the better. It set me on a course to do some great things and I'm sure it will do and has done the same for you too. So go forth and have a great life. Thank you.
Jim Campbell's commendation video
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