Dr. Geoff Goolnik is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin (where he was also President of the influential University Philosophical Society); as well as a post-graduate both of California State University (East Bay) and the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Having lived/ worked for a time in London, he has, most latterly until retiring, been on the academic staff of Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University. In addition, he is an elected Fellow both of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Royal Asiatic Society. Finally, he is currently a resident of Aberdeenshire and situated very close to the settlement where Richard Henry Brunton was born. Geoff explains: “I first heard of (Richard) Henry Brunton - the subject of the talk - when I was living very close to the village where he was born in the north-east of Scotland. He is indeed a much neglected figure generally who, through a balance of civil engineering and management skills, particularly helped with international trade and Japan’s modern development. Throughout his life. he also undertook a variety of other significant roles and involvements that fully illustrate a technocrat's resolve in the rapidly changing world of his time.”