CENSIS is proud to announce that our engineering lab has been renamed the ‘Dr Norman Mackenzie Development Lab’, in memory of our colleague and friend, Norman, who passed away in March 2025.
Norman was the cornerstone of our engineering team – a dedicated professional, brilliant mind, and generous colleague and mentor.
Renaming our lab in his honour is a small but lasting way we can acknowledge the contributions Norman made to CENSIS, and the support he gave to many companies who benefited from his technical expertise. Norman’s quiet genius and kindness of spirit is deeply missed, and our lab will be a reminder of his integrity and capability.
Dr Norman Mackenzie
Norman was born in Glasgow, though his family originally comes from the Isle of Lewis. After leaving Paisley Grammar School, he went on to study at the University of Glasgow where he gained a first-class degree in ‘Natural Philosophy’ (now called Physics). This was followed by a PhD at Glasgow on the development of long baseline, laser interferometric, gravitational wave detectors, winning the university’s prestigious William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) award for his research.
After a period as a Research Associate at the University of Glasgow, Norman had a successful career in industry, working for companies including Motorola, Honeywell Security, Bitwise and FMC Technologies. He joined CENSIS in 2017.
Norman was held in the highest regard by everyone who knew him. His passing is acutely felt by his CENSIS colleagues, some of whom worked with him for more than 15 years, at other companies and even as part of the same research group at the University of Glasgow.