Alexander Allan Innes "Zander" Wedderburn (9 May 1935 – 23 February 2017) was a British

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

renown for his research on shiftwork and for the development of the teaching of

occupational psychology Industrial and organizational psychology (I-O psychology) "focuses the lens of psychological science on a key aspect of human life, namely, their work lives. In general, the goals of I-O psychology are to better understand and optimize the effec ...

Biography

Wedderburn was born in Edinburgh in 1935. His father was Alexander Archibald Innes Wedderburn, a lawyer and auditor to the

Court of Session The Court of Session is the highest national court of Scotland in relation to Civil law (common law), civil cases. The court was established in 1532 to take on the judicial functions of the royal council. Its jurisdiction overlapped with othe ...

. His mother was Ellen Innes Jeans. He attended

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, Stockbridge, is now part of the Senior Scho ...

at which he obtained the position of

Dux ''Dux'' (, : ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, ''dux'' coul ...

or leading student. After a period of

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

he proceeded to

Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and the fourth-oldest college of the university. The college was founde ...

from which he graduated in 1959 with a degree in Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology. He and Jeffrey Gray, his supervisor, subsequently published the findings of his undergraduate project. After graduation, he worked in various industrial relations positions until he was appointed as a lecturer at

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by roya ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

in 1968. He rose through the ranks and retired as

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

in 2000. After his retirement, he founded the publishing company Fledgling Press. At Heriot-Watt, he taught

in the School of Management. Most of his teaching was in the area of making occupational psychology available to business students and engineers, and in his final three years he established a part-time MSc in Occupational Psychology taught jointly with

Strathclyde University The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

. His main research impact was on hours of work and shiftwork, where he became an internationally known authority, building on a

British Steel Corporation British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and cultur ...

Fellowship from 1970 to 1972. In 1991, Heriot-Watt University awarded him a PhD in 1991 for his research on shiftwork. His particular interest was in the interface between research and practice, with several measured practical interventions, a ten-year stint as editor of the Bulletin of European Shiftwork Topics, and founding editor of the Shiftwork International Newsletter. He was President of the

British Psychological Society The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. History It was founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London (UCL) as ''The Psychological Society'', the org ...

in 2003/2004, only the third occupational psychologist to achieve this in the past fifty years. He died of

oesophageal cancer Esophageal cancer (American English) or oesophageal cancer (British English) is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Ot ...

on 23 February 2017, aged 81.

Honours

* President,

(2003-2004) * Fellow, Working Time Society.

Personal life

In 1960, Wedderburn married Bridget Johnstone. They had four children and eight grandchildren.

Works

* Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1967) Social factors in swiftly rotating shifts. ''

Occupational Psychology Industrial and organizational psychology (I-O psychology) "focuses the lens of psychological science on a key aspect of human life, namely, their work lives. In general, the goals of I-O psychology are to better understand and optimize the effec ...

'', 41, 85–107. * Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1972) Sleep patterns on the 25-hour day in a group of tidal shiftworkers. '' Studia Laboris et Salutis'', 11, 101–106. * Keenan, A. and Wedderburn, A. A. I., (1975) Effects of non-verbal behaviour of interviewers on candidates' impressions. '' Journal of Occupational Psychology'', 48, 129–132. * Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1975) EEG and self-recorded sleep of two shiftworkers over four weeks of real and synthetic work. In ''Experimental Studies of Shiftwork'', edited by W. P. Colquhuoun et al., Forschungsberichte des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen 2513. * Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1978) Some suggestions for increasing the usefulness of psychological and sociological studies of shiftwork. ''

Ergonomics Ergonomics, also known as human factors or human factors engineering (HFE), is the application of Psychology, psychological and Physiology, physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Primary goa ...

'', 21, 827–833. * Keenan, A. and Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1980), Putting the boot on the other foot: candidates' descriptions of interviewers. ;;Journal of Occupational Psychology'', 53, 81–89 * Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1987) Unintentional falling asleep at work: what can you do about it In Contemporary advances in shiftwork research , ed. Oginski et al., Krakow, Medical Academy. * Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1987) Sleeping on the job: the use of anecdotes for recording rare but serious events. ''Ergonomics'', 30, 1229–1233. * Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1991)
Guidelines for shiftworkers
'. ''Bulletin of European Shiftwork Topics'' 3. European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Dublin. * Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1992) How fast should the night shift rotate? A rejoinder. ''Ergonomics'', 35, 1447–1451 * Wedderburn A. A. I. and Scholarios, D. (1993) Guidelines for shiftworkers: trials and errors. ''Ergonomics'', 36, 211–217 * Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1993) Teaching grandmothers how to suck eggs: do shiftworkers need rules or guidelines? ''Ergonomics'', 36. * Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1995) Men and women who like continuous shiftwork are more 'hardy': but what does it mean? '' Work & Stress'', 9, 206–210. * Quinn, K. M., King, C., Slawek, K. and Wedderburn, A. A. I. (1995) The effectiveness of an individually tailored health education intervention for 24hr shiftworkers. Paper presented at the XII Symposium on Night and Shiftwork, Connecticut. * Monk, T. H., Folkarc, S. and Wedderburn A. A. I. (1996)
Maintaining safety and high performance on shiftwork.
' in ''

Applied Ergonomics The Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF – formerly The Ergonomics Society) is a United Kingdom–based professional society for ergonomists, human factors specialists, and those involved in user-centred design. History ...

'', 27, 17–23 * Wedderburn A. A. I. Rankin D. (2001) An intervention using a self-help guide to improve the coping behaviour of nightshift workers and its evaluation. HSE Books.

References

External links

* Alexander Wedderburn's publishing compan
Fledgling Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wedderburn, Alexander 1935 births 2017 deaths Academics of Heriot-Watt University Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford British psychologists British neuroscientists Scientists from Edinburgh Presidents of the British Psychological Society Alumni of Heriot-Watt University People educated at Edinburgh Academy