UMIST, 1998
Pay as you go mobile phones were just becoming popular in the late 1990s (I got my first one in 1999) and the phenomenon of people having their phones ring during lectures was also just coming in. During one lecture in the biggest lecture theatre on campus (R/C16, if it means anything to anyone here) it happened and the lecturer walked over, grabbed the phone, asked who it was, and said "He'd rather be with me than with you. Goodbye." The phone owner was quickly taught not to answer calls from his girlfriend during lectures again.

This lecturer was quite a sound bloke with a decent sense of humour and could be supportive if you needed advice. His research interests were in assistive technology for the blind, and he developed the screen reader in Windows 2000.
(mhoulden, Fri 18 Mar 2011, 22:53, 1 reply)

In the late 70s/early 80s there was a chemistry lecturer there who'd been blinded in a chemistry lab explosion
which didn't altogether inspire one with confidence in his methods.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Sat 19 Mar 2011, 8:13, closed)