Happy 100th Birthday to Sir David Attenborough

I will never forget meeting Sir David Attenborough when he visited Shrewsbury in 2000 to unveil the Darwin Statue.

Even then he was a living legend. Now, 26 years later and consistently voted the most well-beloved and respected figure in UK, he celebrates his 100th Birthday. For Biologists and Natural Historians his name is like a spell: hear it and you know magic is about to happen. I remember watching 2017’s Blue Planet 2 (my favourite of his series) for the first time: I felt astonishment after astonishment, the beautiful imagery sewn together into visual poetry by his wonderful voice - and feeling as though I had been given a personal gift. “Drop everything and watch this!”, I told the Biology Faculty group chat at the time.

Attenborough represents a unique bridge between two worlds. Starting his career in the early 1950s, his early broadcasts captured a planet that felt vast and untouched, documenting pristine wildernesses that have since vanished. This lifelong perspective has allowed him to provide firsthand testimony of the accelerating transition from natural abundance to the current crises of habitat loss and climate change. There is literally no-one else on Earth who can tell this story with such authority. Read his autobiography, “Life on Air” and be amazed.

I also believe that David Attenborough has taught us one of the secrets to a long and healthy life. Find something you love doing, something that is meaningful to others, creating interest and fostering community, and keep doing it. Happy Birthday, Sir David: you are the greatest inspiration I know.

Dr Torin Morgan, Head of Biology