I first met Professor Nudd at my 1984 Appointment Board at the University of Warwick - I was appointed as an academic in the Computer Science Department. However, I was astonished to meet him in person because his name, and a chip he had designed whilst at Hughes Research Labs, appeared in the 1982 book “Vision” by David Marr.

Very soon after my appointment Professor Nudd became Chairman of the Computer Science Department. The Department he took over was a centre of excellence for theoretical computer science. But, Computer Science in the 1980’s was becoming much more than a theoretical subject. His impact was immediate and transformational. Within a very few years the Department became one of the best Computer Science Departments in the UK. When we were eventually rated as the top Computer Science Department in the UK, Graham and I trotted off to lunch. Seated next to me he said, “If we are the best, what are the rest of them like?”. He had a wickedly dry sense of humour.  Graham asked me to join his Research Team shortly after my being appointed. He provided the direction, I, and several others, ran around trying to make it happen and trying to keep up with him. His strategic thinking and planning was the driving force.

We had a lot of fun doing research projects. The first was a contract from the US Navy. It became obvious that Graham had done a great deal of work previously for the Navy whilst at Hughes in Malibu. We joked Graham was the only person, ever, to emigrate from Malibu to Coventry (although Broadway is hardly Coventry).

We built weird and wonderful machines and developed techniques that are still relevant to this day. They serve me well. 

Graham would talk to me about his work on RADAR (Stretch but NEVER Squeeze!). He talked about his work on SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) devices that he invented for RADAR signal processing (possibly for the USAF F-16 fighter). I had met SAW devices years before as a summer intern at MOD RSRE in Malvern - there was a group there known as the SAW Group. I never dreamt I would meet the inventor of SAW devices. Every analog colour television on the planet had a SAW chip inside and Graham held the original patent. He held original patents on optical computing and original patents on 3D chip stacks (now incredibly important for high-end computers, especially in my world of AI). He probably showed me some things he should not have. His depth and breadth was astonishing. His technical creativity and innovation has changed the world - his contribution was huge and significant and only matched by his humility.

We worked together on an anti-tank missile for UK MOD, the final stage just before it hits the target. Much of that work was done at WSTL, his company on the Warwick Science Park. You will have seen the resulting system (NLAW) in extensive use in the first few days of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We would visit MOD RARDE every few months, or so, and give our presentations on the progress of the work. Usually we would have lunch between sessions. On one occasion Graham leaned over and asked me “What’s this?”. In his stew, the canteen dated to WWII, as did the stew. In his stew, what he was rolling around with his fork in the gravy was an eyeball. I remember him fighting back the giggles. He failed, we all failed!

We had a European Commission Research Contract. It was at one of the meetings in Paris that I saw a side of Graham that was normally hidden (he modelled himself on the fictional detective Columbo). After listening quietly to one of the other contributors wax lyrical for an hour on the subject of “corner-turning algorithms and the Fourier transform”, and having no satisfactory answer to the simple question “Why are you doing that?”, he stood up, covered a blackboard in maths, underlined the final line and repeated the question. They did not know what had hit them. The final project dinner in Pisa was fun. The French group suggested we meet them at a particular restaurant for a final project dinner, Graham, Darren and I turned up, but the French had gone to a different restaurant.

Graham and Laura would, every year or so, take the research team out for dinner, that’s where I first met Alison. On those occasions Laura would tell me funny stories about Graham. One I recall vividly. Graham would buy and sell gold. High frequency trading of quite large amounts. Buying low and selling high, essentially playing the noise in the gold price. (His PhD was on Noise). On one occasion he forgot to issue the sell order. As Laura told it, a truck turned up with a forklift that unloaded a pallet of gold bars and carried them to the front door. “Where would you like these Mrs?”. Laura never told how this was resolved.

Graham taught me by example, by osmosis, by correcting my silly ideas. When I had learnt all I could from Graham he set me loose on research contracts of my own. He still watched over me, but he had grown me as a researcher, something that I now do for the brilliant research team that report to me. He had taught me many of his “tricks”, such as; always hire researchers brighter than you are; only hire lucky people; always keep the customer in the loop. He pointed out that the harder people work in research the luckier they seem to get.

Apart from research Graham was a good teacher of undergraduates. He genuinely cared about them. Of the many stories I could tell you this one sticks out. Every year the new intake of students would gather in the Physics Lecture Theatre, PLT, and await the Chairman and lecturers. Every year. Year after year. Then one year, just before Graham entered the doorway into the PLT I whispered in his ear “Groundhog year”. The look I got seemed to be anger - it wasn’t anger, it was Graham desperately trying not to laugh as he presented himself to the new undergraduates.

Staff meetings were always fun. Graham would allow his fellow academics to argue until they ran out of energy. Hold a vote, ignore it, and do what he wanted to do all along. Benevolent dictatorship. He once told me that out of 22 academics, 21 would hold one view and one would hold a different view. That one was me. He valued and encouraged the smart ass contrary thinker.

Graham would enter my office at the end of the day, sit down and off-load his grumbles. My reward for listening and keeping them to myself was a lift home, he would stuff my bicycle into his Volvo estate and often carry on off-loading.

I liked the man. He taught me how to learn how to manage people, how to manage research, how to motivate a research team and how to be ruthless, yet caring, to get results. I was lucky to meet him and to work with him.

He was my boss, my colleague and my mentor.