Drew Mulholland, Honorary Research Fellow with the School of Geographical and Earth Sciences and Honorary Research Associate in the School of Physics and Astronomy, has been elected a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

Image of Drew MulhollandHe joins luminaries including Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, and Stephen Hawking. 

Last year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers.

Drew specialises in sound and psychogeography and is also composer-in-residence in both the School of GES and Physics and Astronomy.

His recent compositions have included a performance for a “laser harp” – a harp played by blocking laser beams rather than plucking strings that was designed by staff and students in the physics and astrophysics department. 

He has also completed an album made up of the sound of the outer magnetic fields, which was recorded using a very low-frequency receiver at sites around Scotland that included a Bronze Age cairn, a Neolithic burial chamber and a Second World War decoy installation.

In a more traditional vein, Mr Mulholland was commissioned in 2015 to compose a cello duet commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Loos, which marked the British army’s first use of poison gas during the First World War. For the composer, the piece had a particular poignancy because his grandfather was a stretcher-bearer during the battle and lost two fingers from his left hand when he was shot, ending his passion for playing the violin and the bagpipes.

First published: 6 February 2017

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