Ted Megaw was a major influence in the field of ergonomics, educating and inspiring generations of students at the University of Birmingham. It is a testimony to the esteem and affection in which he was held that so many friends, colleagues and students gathered at his funeral last October.
Ted was born in Hampstead into a prestigious, academic and cultured family. His father (Dr Eric Christopher Stanley Megaw, DSc, MBE) was the first amateur to send and receive radio signals between Ireland and New Zealand. As a key radar scientist, Eric's crucial development work on the cavity magnetron in 1942 utterly transformed the potentiality of radar – it was one of the most important inventions of World War II. Ted's mother was Dutch and from Jewish extraction. She grew up in Amsterdam and was a promising young actress. She left the Netherlands before the deportations of Jews from her home city began in July 1942 – although her parents were less fortunate and died in concentration camps without the knowledge of Ted's existence. Ted's paternal grandfather was a Belfast solicitor and published numerous best-selling anthologies of poetry and prose. Given his heritage, it was unsurprising that from a very early age Ted learned the importance of humanity and social justice and to appreciate the Arts and Sciences in equal measure.
Ted's formal education began at University College School, London. He excelled at sports, politics and music. He became an accomplished flautist, swimmer and life member of CND. Following in the footsteps of two of his uncles, he went up to Peterhouse, Cambridge to read Natural Sciences. It was during this time that Ted discovered one of his life-time passions – dog racing – and when he bought his first greyhound. Another great passion – France and its culture – was gratified following his graduation, when Ted went to live in France where he perfected culinary skills and learnt to speak several European languages fluently.
A year later, Ted returned to the UK to resume his academic studies – this time in the West Midlands where he spent most of his working life. Ted gained both his MSc and his PhD at the University of Birmingham and his doctoral thesis on ‘Response Factors and the Psychological Refractory Period’ was recognised by Professor A.T. Welford of the University of Adelaide as ‘… an important piece of work, probably the most definitive contribution since the original papers of Craik and Vince’. Ted became Senior Lecturer and Course Director and was also a tutor for the Open University from 1972 to 1983. He was also a visiting Professor at l'Université de Paris-Sud, France and visiting Research Fellow at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan.
Ted's research interests included visual ergonomics (visual search, visual fatigue and industrial visual inspection), mental workload and dissemination of ergonomics information. His rigorous scientific method and personal commitment to his work frequently led to him lugging (unbelievably heavy!) eye-recording equipment up and down the country to measure eye movements of people checking the quality of products as diverse as polaroid cameras, car tyres and carpets. Ted was duly honoured for his endeavours – he became the first ever recipient of the Ergonomics Society Research Award for his ‘major contributions to research in the field of industrial inspection’. In 1995, in his capacity as the Director of the Ergonomics Information Analysis Centre, Ted and his team were also awarded the President's Medal of the Ergonomics Society.
Ted was a true scientist and teacher. He believed in research being carried out properly, yet he was open-minded, letting his students try out their own way of doing things. He taught over 400 ergonomists on the MSc course in Work Design and Ergonomics, and mentored many PhD students. Ted had a sharp, analytical mind and the acuity to notice things that others may have missed. He was a demanding tutor whose incisiveness, keen memory and unwillingness to compromise standards could daunt even the most able; yet his feedback was accurate, constructive and challenged his students to be the best they could be. He was interested in their research and their careers and continued to provide unstinting support to some long after they left university. Many of his students are now influential in industrial and research ergonomics both here and abroad.
As a serving member of the Ergonomics Society (as was) for over 40 years, Ted took an active interest in all aspects of its work. He was a Fellow of the Ergonomics Society, Chair of the Practitioners’ Panel (as was) and Member of Council. He was Book Reviews Editor of Ergonomics, Scientific Editor for Applied Ergonomics and editorial board member for the Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics. For many years, he also edited the annual conference proceedings Contemporary Ergonomics. As Director of the Ergonomics Information Analysis Centre, Ted took Ergonomics Abstracts from a printed journal to the largest and most comprehensive online resource for ergonomics information. Richard Steele of Taylor & Francis recognises Ted's contribution: ‘Ergonomics Abstracts helped change the way T&F published journals – even though as [Ted] would often point out, we didn't always get it right first time’.
Ted's prolonged and painful battle with cancer lasted nearly 18 years, yet his courage and unbelievable desire to live life to the full shone through even the darkest of days. He was a private, independent-minded, self-sufficient man who nevertheless was generous with his time and money and who never favoured fashion and social convention over talent and sheer hard work. Most certainly, he could be critical, impatient, demanding yet he was also gentle, funny, sensitive, and astonishingly perceptive. It was his ability to evoke genuinely fond memories in such a wide variety of people through his kindness, outrageousness, humour and perspicacity that gave him a unique place in so many hearts. Here's to the irreplaceable Ted: warm, wise, witty and gloriously irascible!
Ted is survived by his brother Vincent (Emeritus Professor of the Department of Archaeology, Flinders University), his nephew Jonathan and his life partner Elaine.