Professor Peter N.R. Usherwood BSc PhD FRSE
After obtaining his primary and secondary school education in Gravesend, Kent, Peter went to University College of Wales, Aberystwyth to study for a BSc and then to Glasgow University where, in 1962, he obtained a PhD in neuroscience. A visit to the United States followed, where he worked as a research scientist at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, Peter then returned to Glasgow University, and in 1970 he was appointed by the Secretary of State for Scotland to membership of Glasgow’s Childrens Panel, a body responsible for dealing with children under 16 either in need of care and/or protection or who may have committed offences. His election to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1972 was the high point of his academic career in Scotland. Peter moved South with his wife and four children in 1974 to occupy the Chair of Zoology at Nottingham University. He has been a Nottingham City resident ever since, but university administrative duties and international research commitments prevented him at that time from pursuing local community interests. Appointments as chair of many national and international bodies brought him into contact with a variety of senior agencies at home and abroad and ,importantly, provided opportunities to support academics working behind the Iron Curtain. Following his retirement, Peter joined Neighbourhood Watch, became a founder member, and the first Chair, of the City’s Neighbourhood Watch Council and was appointed to the Board of the Crime & Drugs Partnership. These activities have given him a greater understanding of Nottingham’s communities; of the problems faced by the Police and City Council in improving community safety in the City; and, especially of the adverse impacts of domestic violence on child welfare, an understanding that he brings to his current post. Additionally, Peter’s scientific background in neuropharmacology provides the Partnership with informed inputs to its strategy of reducing illicit drug and alcohol abuse in Nottingham.
