Dr Paul Shapter Gray BSc, MSc, DSc, FRSC
 A life applying the sciences for a better world

Summary: BSc Birmingham, 1954, Chief Chemist, Midland Tar Distillers, 1954–57; Sen. Research Fellow, Ministry of Power, 1957–59; Head of Div., Reactor Chemistry, UKAEA, Winfrith, 1959–63; Operations Controller, OECD DRAGON (high temp. gas cooled reactor experiment), 1963–73; European Commission, 1973–97: Dep. Head of Div., Elimination of Technical Barriers to Trade, 1977–81; Head - of Service, Wood, Paper and Construction Industries, 1981–83; Head of Div., Food Law and Food Trade, 1983–91; Advisor for industrial aspects of biotechnology, 1991–92. Director, Environment, Climate and Marine Science and Technology Research Programmes, European Commission, 1992–97. Scientific. Advisor, European Assoc. for Global Ocean Observing System, 1996–2001; Member Scientific Committee, Royal Inst. for sustainable management of natural resources and promotion of clean technologies, Belgium, 1997–2010; Royal Society of Chemistry: Member: Council, 2004–05; Prof. Affairs Board, 2005–07; President, Belgium Section, 2005–09. Hon. DSc Birmingham, 1999, Visiting Professor Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Human Ecology) 2002-2010

A year ago, my father Dr Paul Shapter Gray BSc MSc, DSc FRIC an extraordinary scientist, thinker and solutionist lost his struggle with Parkinson’s and the effects of covid. He would have reached his 90th birthday a month later. Going through his papers and achievements you become aware of his extraordinary career as a scientist, civil servant, solutionist and creator. This text sets out his scientific and official achievements of this extraordinary smart man who was recognised with an honorary doctorate. I have elsewhere written of his as a musical and theatrical achievements and as a singer, designer, and creator and of his contributions to the European cause. This is essentially about the science. He believed that “Science is based on the concept that there is order in the material world and a scientists' job is to listen to the Creation and discover the rules that govern its behaviour.”

Born in 1932 Paul Gray grew up and was educated in the Midlands. His family over the generations were responsible for building the Great Western Railway, had been engineers, mechanics, station managers, mariners, and mayors responsible for building Dawlish Warren. His father a gifted engineer and Inspector in the machine shop at the GWR. Stafford Road Works died of tuberculosis when Paul was just 11. Paul in seeing this was determined to devote himself to science and wanted to find a cure. Someone else did that. Encouraged by his school St Chads and generous scholarships from them and the Oddfellows he went on to study Chemistry and material Sciences at Birmingham University graduating in 1954 with an honours BSc in Chemistry. One of the requirements for a chemistry degree was two foreign languages and this led him to take a summer placement, in the Paris gas works, and a more sobering group visit to Mainz university. Much of Mainz was still being rebuilt and the nearby medieval town of Worms was in ruins. He met an old Augustinian monk pointing out the damage done to the cathedral by a succession of invading armies who told him  “Don’t despair, act! You, the youth of today, must put this right”. He retained a firm determination that such a conflict should not occur again and was a driving force in his commitment to set things right in the world. After graduating, he became for several years chief works chemist at Midland Tar Distillers Oldbury before being appointed in 1957 as a Senior Research Fellow at Wolverhampton College of Advanced Technology (now Wolverhampton University) where he carried out research for the Ministry of Power on high temperature corrosion and deposition in gas turbines, presented to Birmingham University for an external MSc in materials science in 1960.

In 1959 he joined a new exciting OECD project starting up in the picturesque landscape of Dorset as head of the reactor chemistry division at the Winfrith Heath Establishment of the UK Atomic Energy Authority and in 1961 was seconded to the international OECD Dragon Reactor Project firstly as head of the operations chemistry division then subsequently reactor operations controller with executive responsibility for the team commissioning and operating the world's first High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGCR).  This reactor was a novel design operating at core temperatures of up to 1,400EC with a non-fission product releasing ceramic composite fuel. For him it was an amazing experience as he expresses to a friend “I often say to people what fun it was to be allowed to play with a big new Meccano set at the expense of the British taxpayer but in fact we successfully commissioned and ran the very first High Temperature Reactor in the world.” Following the commissioning of the reactor, he was also extensively involved in work in reactor development and experimental work in Europe, published many reports and scientific papers on nuclear reactor science and technology and registered several patents for instruments for the analysis of very low-level gaseous impurities in helium.

His knowledge of languages was an invaluable asset to interact with an international community of scientists where knowledge could be pooled. He learned much from similar operations on research trips to nuclear power plants at Cadarache the largest technological research and development centre for energy in Europe in France, Graz in Austria and even the US to build the Winfrith Dragon Project. We hosted in Weymouth colleagues and their families and reciprocally were welcomed by colleagues across Europe.
In 1972 things were to change, the pressure example of Winfrith was less favoured by the new government at the time and heavy water was considered to be the way forward, Paul was offered to go with his family to Dounreay the northern tip of Scotland.  Transport, and communications was not as it is now. The nuclear plant would be using US technology for heavy water fission. He was not so convinced. At the time though another experimental project was coming into place needing UK experts, the idea of a Common market and united European Community. Britain had made the decision to join, and my father got a job in Brussels. A key as deputy head of division for the Elimination of Technical Barriers to Trade in the Directorate General for the Internal Market.  He negotiated the adoption in 1974 of the first EC directive on fertilisers, in 1975 the first European legislation on cosmetics, which required all products used in cosmetics to be safe.  He also drafted and negotiated the EC directive requiring all new chemicals to be tested for safety and registered before sale.  In 1975 he was part of the EC team who negotiated a package of 19 directives on the safety of industrial products. 

In 1977 he became head of division for paper, wood, leather, footwear, and miscellaneous industries.  His division developed policies for the restructuring of these industries. Another aspect of the division’s work was related to the better use of natural resources and the protection of endangered species.  A policy for forest industries including the rational use of wood and forest 'waste' and recycling was therefore set in motion and now in the EC more than 50% of paper and board is made from recycled waste.
Paul Gray also developed EC legislation banning the use of ‘baby seal skins' produced by the Canadian and Norwegian seal culls and the import of whale products which were extensively used in the tanning industry to reinforce the moratorium on whale hunting. 
In 1980 the construction industry was added to his responsibilities. This was a crucial moment in building design A series of European Building Codes (EUROCODES) was developed which were taken out of the framework of formal law giving entrepreneurs the option to use them if they wished.  This was one of the prototypes for the 1992 'new approach' of reference to standards.

In 1982 he was appointed head of Division for Food with responsibilities covering food law, industrial policy for the food industry, trade in processed food, European cooperative food research projects and industrial biotechnology.  In 1983, together with staff from the biotech division of the DG fr research, his department produced the EC’s first Communication on biotechnology. This laid down four topics: Research; Access to raw materials at world prices; The protection of intellectual property; The use of existing legislation wherever possible; as main planks of Community action. He then developed with the agricultural DG a proposal for the reform of the existing CAP sugar and starch regimes. The previous system was discouraging the development of an EC based biotech industry.  The new regimes were adopted in 1987 and were embodied in the reform of the CAP negotiated in the GATT. Uruguay round.
Paul made a major contribution to the reform of EC food law. Previously the EC using had been attempting to harmonize all national food laws.  Since many of these determined the composition of products this was seen as a fundamental attack on national culture and the process was unsuccessful for moist products apart from fruit juice or honey.   A Commission Communication on food law was drafted in 1983/4 based on a careful balance between harmonization and Cassis de Dijon case law and became part of the 1992 programme for completion of the Internal Market. The Communication stated that EC food law is to deal only issues vital to consumer interest:
- the protection of public health.
- fair trading (labelling and advertising);  
- and the enforcement of legislation by control authorities.

Composition rules were dubbed 'recipe law', and differences in national rules should no longer hinder trade since they can be dealt with by adequate labelling.  The Commission Communication stated "...it is neither desirable nor necessary to confine the culinary riches of twelve Member States in a straitjacket of legislation...".  Concepts such as 'Euro-bread and Euro-beer' were consigned to the history books and the programme for food law revision, an early example of subsidiarity, met with great success, most of the legislation proposed being adopted before the 1992 deadline.  In parallel the Commission won several cases in the European Court such as the Beer case which allowed beer from other Member States to be sold in Germany.  In October 1989 the considerable body of food case law was analysed in a further Commission Communication that stated the conditions laid down by the Court under which food can freely circulate.

Several features of the 1990 UK Food Act, such as 'in factory inspection', and the reform of food additive laws and the subsequent simplification of hygiene rules derive directly from these EC initiatives. For the first time in 1988-1989 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not adopt any new food standards as a first step in taking a similar approach to the EC.  The G.A.T.T. Sanitary and Phytosanitary (S.P.S.) Code, negotiated in the Uruguay round also is inspired from this approach.  It introduces an international dispute resolution procedure for food trade.

One of the greatest achievements my father did was to bring scientists together on a regular basis, like he had at Winfrith from different countries to resolve problems. Some of these had even fought each other in armed conflict. That’s why his principles of mutual recognition of standards and diplomas was key to a united Europe. When the European media started to have stories about contaminants in food and deaths from Spanish olive oil in 1979 and later 1984/5 the Austrian diethylene glycol (so called 'antifreeze'), serious methanol contamination incident in wine in Italy which killed some 21 people) my father conceived setting up a rapid food alert scheme. It was setup in 1979 gathering and analysing data. The system resent out an analysis and enable.de the Commission to correspond with national food controllers as rapidly as possible in co-ordinating the withdrawal of contaminated foodstuffs. The system is till in place today and dealt with salmonella in eggs and mad cow disease.
Perhaps the most personally fulfilling of my fathers’ actions was responding to the Chernobyl crisis and managing of emergency legislation fixing limits for radioactive contamination in food. He was to apply his former nuclear knowledge with scientific mapping of weather patterns. His was the hand drawn contamination map quoted in the media. The availability of rapid food alert system, together with the fact that he had been trained as a nuclear incident controller on the Dragon Reactor put him in a unique position of having hour by hour information on contamination and the appropriate scientific background to propose remedial action. The Commission received a message from the Danish controller indicating nuclear fallout on crops and immediately put the rapid alert system in action to collect data.  After presiding a meeting of food controllers and nuclear experts held while the fallout was still occurring together with some colleagues, he drafted proposals on temporarily blocking imports from Eastern Europe while EC wide limits for the radioactive contamination of food which were adopted in record time.

A subsequent proposal set permitted levels of the 'marker isotopes' Caesium 134 and Caesium 137 in food and these Regulations enabled trade in foodstuffs to continue.  During the period of crisis my Paul Gray in close daily contact with the EC Member States EFTA and Eastern Europe and EC measures were adopted by 26 other countries including the USSR.  The cooperation and free flow of information established with Eastern Europe and the absence information from Russian sources was a public demonstration of the inadequacies of their authoritarian system and contributed to the crumbling of 'the iron curtain'.
The unanimous adoption by the EU in 1992, of a proposal initiated by Paul Gray helped establish a cooperative system for all food safety assessment in Europe.  This unites all the various bodies and institutes carrying out research and assessment of food safety problems and headed by the Commission's Scientific Committee for Food. The system shares responsibilities according to the principle of subsidiarity and fulfilled most of the tasks of a Food Agency without giving rise to problems of delegation of powers to an agency or creating a large, centralised body and avoiding duplicate assessments at national level.
In February 1991 Gray was appointed adviser to the Commission with specific responsibilities for industrial biotechnology in the directorate general for industry. He spearheaded a Commission Communication on Promoting the Competitive Environment for Industrial Activities Based on Biotechnology in the EC Community in 1991 and several initiatives were to bring EC biotechnology regulation onto a science-based risk assessment approach.

In December 1992 he became Director of European Union Research programmes on Environment and Climate, and Marine Science and Technology.   In December 1994 the EU Council adopted within the fourth framework programme the specific Environment and Climate, and Marine Science and Technology Research Programmes with budgets of 570 and 244 million ECU for the four-year period 1995-1998 respectively representing increases in budget of about 6% and 100% respectively.
The research programmes are mainly executed by shared cost actions by EU research institutes, universities, and industry consortia. The main themes for the environment and climate programme are research into the natural environmental, pollutants, natural catastrophes (floods, earthquakes, and volcanoes) environmental quality and global change; instruments and techniques for monitoring environmental parameters and processes; space techniques applied to environmental monitoring and research and the human dimensions of environmental change.  For the marine science and technology programme the principal themes are research on marine systems, extreme marine environments, and regional seas; strategic research on coastal and shelf seas and coastal engineering; generic and advanced systems for marine technologies.

My father returning from field research trips on icebreakers in the Artic to reviewing the ice melt, the increase in ocean and air temperatures and the effect of rising sea levels was convinced there would be severe repercussions for climate change and the delicate balance of the planet. “Global change is happening now and will affect us in our lifetime in ways that we can't possibly imagine.” He issued all in the family alpaca jumpers, installed insulation and turned down the thermostat in the house by 5 degrees. A measure only now advocated by governments over 30 years later.  My father was often unwavering in his views but always ready to help in problem solving and come in with the unexpected. When told that the rule book would not allow a course of action he would appeal to common sense and often help recast the rules to be practical and fair. A colleague said “He combined deep technical knowledge and passionate opposition to sloppy thinking - both very useful in a bureaucracy… And I also remember with pleasure how he would unexpectedly burst into song at the end of a meeting - usually an operatic aria  - and was often involved in choral singing….”
He retired from the European Commission in 1996 and became an adviser to Prince Laurent of Belgium on Environmental Affairs, a member of Governing Board of the Belgian National Orchestra, a senior scientific adviser to the European Global Ocean Observing System, a visiting lecturer at several European universities and a writer and adviser on food safety questions. His article on ‘dirty dishcloths’ was well remembered among Brussels circles warning people about the biohazards from germs in the kitchen.  He was a lifelong member of the member of the RSC and active member of the Brussels chapter.

When Brexit was being debated and the results of the referendum my father provided many scientific and policy inputs to ensure facts were correct about the impact of EU policies. He was severely upset by the outcome of the referendum and seemingly the undoing of his efforts for a united Europe where Britain played an essential part. He believed right up to the end of his life in the delivery of science to the wellbeing of mankind and the need for people to work together to overcome their differences.
In 1999 Paul Gray was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science by Birmingham University in recognition of his achievements in furthering the cause of science and contributions to major scientific frameworks. For my father the role of science was crucial to answer essential questions of life and being. He questioned all thoroughly using Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle but felt like Karl Popper that the answers found brought us all closer to a more eternal truth in his acceptance speech for his honorary DSc at Birmingham University he appealed to all graduand scientists concerning climate change and the rise in use of AI “It is not enough to say that this is a problem for the social scientists you as natural scientists have not only the knowledge but also a duty to contribute to the debate. …. Media reports are often based on statements of scientists who are less than honest. You must practice your profession with probity so that you may credibly defend reality in reasoned discussion. …” His view on the role of science was expressed in his quote of the great French writer Rabelais, “Science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul.” He stood up to politicians if they ignored the science and did get into trouble allegedly with Edith Cresson and also with Edwina Currie for doing so.

To conclude, my father didn’t see a contradiction between science and belief. He marvelled at new discoveries, having operated huge super computers in the 60’s and 70’s he was fascinated by the emergence of the PC spending hours exploring its capabilities and the Internet in his 70’s. in his own words of wonder in a sermon on science and creation he gave in 2008“…As a scientist I have been privileged to see wonderful things in God's Creation. I have looked into the heart of an operating nuclear reactor and seen the glorious blue of the Cerenkov radiation caused by particles travelling greater than the speed of light in water and I was in NASA in 1994 to see at first hand via the Hubble space telescope the Shoemaker-Levy comet crash into Jupiter….” He concluded “…The deepest scientific insight of the natural world causes us great wonder but tells us nothing about the real nature of God who is a spirit. But this does not leave us comfortless it points us to the necessity for revelation through faith…”

Ralph Waldo Emerson said “To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived — that is to have succeeded. “I think we can safely say Paul Gray helped leave this world a little better than when he entered it!
 Dr Paul Shapter Gray BSc, MSc, DSc, FRSC
 A life applying the sciences for a better world

Summary: BSc Birmingham, 1954, Chief Chemist, Midland Tar Distillers, 1954–57; Sen. Research Fellow, Ministry of Power, 1957–59; Head of Div., Reactor Chemistry, UKAEA, Winfrith, 1959–63; Operations Controller, OECD DRAGON (high temp. gas cooled reactor experiment), 1963–73; European Commission, 1973–97: Dep. Head of Div., Elimination of Technical Barriers to Trade, 1977–81; Head - of Service, Wood, Paper and Construction Industries, 1981–83; Head of Div., Food Law and Food Trade, 1983–91; Advisor for industrial aspects of biotechnology, 1991–92. Director, Environment, Climate and Marine Science and Technology Research Programmes, European Commission, 1992–97. Scientific. Advisor, European Assoc. for Global Ocean Observing System, 1996–2001; Member Scientific Committee, Royal Inst. for sustainable management of natural resources and promotion of clean technologies, Belgium, 1997–2010; Royal Society of Chemistry: Member: Council, 2004–05; Prof. Affairs Board, 2005–07; President, Belgium Section, 2005–09. Hon. DSc Birmingham, 1999, Visiting Professor Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Human Ecology) 2002-2010

A year ago, my father Dr Paul Shapter Gray BSc MSc, DSc FRIC an extraordinary scientist, thinker and solutionist lost his struggle with Parkinson’s and the effects of covid. He would have reached his 90th birthday a month later. Going through his papers and achievements you become aware of his extraordinary career as a scientist, civil servant, solutionist and creator. This text sets out his scientific and official achievements of this extraordinary smart man who was recognised with an honorary doctorate. I have elsewhere written of his as a musical and theatrical achievements and as a singer, designer, and creator and of his contributions to the European cause. This is essentially about the science. He believed that “Science is based on the concept that there is order in the material world and a scientists' job is to listen to the Creation and discover the rules that govern its behaviour.”

Born in 1932 Paul Gray grew up and was educated in the Midlands. His family over the generations were responsible for building the Great Western Railway, had been engineers, mechanics, station managers, mariners, and mayors responsible for building Dawlish Warren. His father a gifted engineer and Inspector in the machine shop at the GWR. Stafford Road Works died of tuberculosis when Paul was just 11. Paul in seeing this was determined to devote himself to science and wanted to find a cure. Someone else did that. Encouraged by his school St Chads and generous scholarships from them and the Oddfellows he went on to study Chemistry and material Sciences at Birmingham University graduating in 1954 with an honours BSc in Chemistry. One of the requirements for a chemistry degree was two foreign languages and this led him to take a summer placement, in the Paris gas works, and a more sobering group visit to Mainz university. Much of Mainz was still being rebuilt and the nearby medieval town of Worms was in ruins. He met an old Augustinian monk pointing out the damage done to the cathedral by a succession of invading armies who told him  “Don’t despair, act! You, the youth of today, must put this right”. He retained a firm determination that such a conflict should not occur again and was a driving force in his commitment to set things right in the world. After graduating, he became for several years chief works chemist at Midland Tar Distillers Oldbury before being appointed in 1957 as a Senior Research Fellow at Wolverhampton College of Advanced Technology (now Wolverhampton University) where he carried out research for the Ministry of Power on high temperature corrosion and deposition in gas turbines, presented to Birmingham University for an external MSc in materials science in 1960.

In 1959 he joined a new exciting OECD project starting up in the picturesque landscape of Dorset as head of the reactor chemistry division at the Winfrith Heath Establishment of the UK Atomic Energy Authority and in 1961 was seconded to the international OECD Dragon Reactor Project firstly as head of the operations chemistry division then subsequently reactor operations controller with executive responsibility for the team commissioning and operating the world's first High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGCR).  This reactor was a novel design operating at core temperatures of up to 1,400EC with a non-fission product releasing ceramic composite fuel. For him it was an amazing experience as he expresses to a friend “I often say to people what fun it was to be allowed to play with a big new Meccano set at the expense of the British taxpayer but in fact we successfully commissioned and ran the very first High Temperature Reactor in the world.” Following the commissioning of the reactor, he was also extensively involved in work in reactor development and experimental work in Europe, published many reports and scientific papers on nuclear reactor science and technology and registered several patents for instruments for the analysis of very low-level gaseous impurities in helium.

His knowledge of languages was an invaluable asset to interact with an international community of scientists where knowledge could be pooled. He learned much from similar operations on research trips to nuclear power plants at Cadarache the largest technological research and development centre for energy in Europe in France, Graz in Austria and even the US to build the Winfrith Dragon Project. We hosted in Weymouth colleagues and their families and reciprocally were welcomed by colleagues across Europe.
In 1972 things were to change, the pressure example of Winfrith was less favoured by the new government at the time and heavy water was considered to be the way forward, Paul was offered to go with his family to Dounreay the northern tip of Scotland.  Transport, and communications was not as it is now. The nuclear plant would be using US technology for heavy water fission. He was not so convinced. At the time though another experimental project was coming into place needing UK experts, the idea of a Common market and united European Community. Britain had made the decision to join, and my father got a job in Brussels. A key as deputy head of division for the Elimination of Technical Barriers to Trade in the Directorate General for the Internal Market.  He negotiated the adoption in 1974 of the first EC directive on fertilisers, in 1975 the first European legislation on cosmetics, which required all products used in cosmetics to be safe.  He also drafted and negotiated the EC directive requiring all new chemicals to be tested for safety and registered before sale.  In 1975 he was part of the EC team who negotiated a package of 19 directives on the safety of industrial products. 

In 1977 he became head of division for paper, wood, leather, footwear, and miscellaneous industries.  His division developed policies for the restructuring of these industries. Another aspect of the division’s work was related to the better use of natural resources and the protection of endangered species.  A policy for forest industries including the rational use of wood and forest 'waste' and recycling was therefore set in motion and now in the EC more than 50% of paper and board is made from recycled waste.
Paul Gray also developed EC legislation banning the use of ‘baby seal skins' produced by the Canadian and Norwegian seal culls and the import of whale products which were extensively used in the tanning industry to reinforce the moratorium on whale hunting. 
In 1980 the construction industry was added to his responsibilities. This was a crucial moment in building design A series of European Building Codes (EUROCODES) was developed which were taken out of the framework of formal law giving entrepreneurs the option to use them if they wished.  This was one of the prototypes for the 1992 'new approach' of reference to standards.

In 1982 he was appointed head of Division for Food with responsibilities covering food law, industrial policy for the food industry, trade in processed food, European cooperative food research projects and industrial biotechnology.  In 1983, together with staff from the biotech division of the DG fr research, his department produced the EC’s first Communication on biotechnology. This laid down four topics: Research; Access to raw materials at world prices; The protection of intellectual property; The use of existing legislation wherever possible; as main planks of Community action. He then developed with the agricultural DG a proposal for the reform of the existing CAP sugar and starch regimes. The previous system was discouraging the development of an EC based biotech industry.  The new regimes were adopted in 1987 and were embodied in the reform of the CAP negotiated in the GATT. Uruguay round.
Paul made a major contribution to the reform of EC food law. Previously the EC using had been attempting to harmonize all national food laws.  Since many of these determined the composition of products this was seen as a fundamental attack on national culture and the process was unsuccessful for moist products apart from fruit juice or honey.   A Commission Communication on food law was drafted in 1983/4 based on a careful balance between harmonization and Cassis de Dijon case law and became part of the 1992 programme for completion of the Internal Market. The Communication stated that EC food law is to deal only issues vital to consumer interest:
- the protection of public health.
- fair trading (labelling and advertising);  
- and the enforcement of legislation by control authorities.

Composition rules were dubbed 'recipe law', and differences in national rules should no longer hinder trade since they can be dealt with by adequate labelling.  The Commission Communication stated "...it is neither desirable nor necessary to confine the culinary riches of twelve Member States in a straitjacket of legislation...".  Concepts such as 'Euro-bread and Euro-beer' were consigned to the history books and the programme for food law revision, an early example of subsidiarity, met with great success, most of the legislation proposed being adopted before the 1992 deadline.  In parallel the Commission won several cases in the European Court such as the Beer case which allowed beer from other Member States to be sold in Germany.  In October 1989 the considerable body of food case law was analysed in a further Commission Communication that stated the conditions laid down by the Court under which food can freely circulate.

Several features of the 1990 UK Food Act, such as 'in factory inspection', and the reform of food additive laws and the subsequent simplification of hygiene rules derive directly from these EC initiatives. For the first time in 1988-1989 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not adopt any new food standards as a first step in taking a similar approach to the EC.  The G.A.T.T. Sanitary and Phytosanitary (S.P.S.) Code, negotiated in the Uruguay round also is inspired from this approach.  It introduces an international dispute resolution procedure for food trade.

One of the greatest achievements my father did was to bring scientists together on a regular basis, like he had at Winfrith from different countries to resolve problems. Some of these had even fought each other in armed conflict. That’s why his principles of mutual recognition of standards and diplomas was key to a united Europe. When the European media started to have stories about contaminants in food and deaths from Spanish olive oil in 1979 and later 1984/5 the Austrian diethylene glycol (so called 'antifreeze'), serious methanol contamination incident in wine in Italy which killed some 21 people) my father conceived setting up a rapid food alert scheme. It was setup in 1979 gathering and analysing data. The system resent out an analysis and enable.de the Commission to correspond with national food controllers as rapidly as possible in co-ordinating the withdrawal of contaminated foodstuffs. The system is till in place today and dealt with salmonella in eggs and mad cow disease.
Perhaps the most personally fulfilling of my fathers’ actions was responding to the Chernobyl crisis and managing of emergency legislation fixing limits for radioactive contamination in food. He was to apply his former nuclear knowledge with scientific mapping of weather patterns. His was the hand drawn contamination map quoted in the media. The availability of rapid food alert system, together with the fact that he had been trained as a nuclear incident controller on the Dragon Reactor put him in a unique position of having hour by hour information on contamination and the appropriate scientific background to propose remedial action. The Commission received a message from the Danish controller indicating nuclear fallout on crops and immediately put the rapid alert system in action to collect data.  After presiding a meeting of food controllers and nuclear experts held while the fallout was still occurring together with some colleagues, he drafted proposals on temporarily blocking imports from Eastern Europe while EC wide limits for the radioactive contamination of food which were adopted in record time.

A subsequent proposal set permitted levels of the 'marker isotopes' Caesium 134 and Caesium 137 in food and these Regulations enabled trade in foodstuffs to continue.  During the period of crisis my Paul Gray in close daily contact with the EC Member States EFTA and Eastern Europe and EC measures were adopted by 26 other countries including the USSR.  The cooperation and free flow of information established with Eastern Europe and the absence information from Russian sources was a public demonstration of the inadequacies of their authoritarian system and contributed to the crumbling of 'the iron curtain'.
The unanimous adoption by the EU in 1992, of a proposal initiated by Paul Gray helped establish a cooperative system for all food safety assessment in Europe.  This unites all the various bodies and institutes carrying out research and assessment of food safety problems and headed by the Commission's Scientific Committee for Food. The system shares responsibilities according to the principle of subsidiarity and fulfilled most of the tasks of a Food Agency without giving rise to problems of delegation of powers to an agency or creating a large, centralised body and avoiding duplicate assessments at national level.
In February 1991 Gray was appointed adviser to the Commission with specific responsibilities for industrial biotechnology in the directorate general for industry. He spearheaded a Commission Communication on Promoting the Competitive Environment for Industrial Activities Based on Biotechnology in the EC Community in 1991 and several initiatives were to bring EC biotechnology regulation onto a science-based risk assessment approach.

In December 1992 he became Director of European Union Research programmes on Environment and Climate, and Marine Science and Technology.   In December 1994 the EU Council adopted within the fourth framework programme the specific Environment and Climate, and Marine Science and Technology Research Programmes with budgets of 570 and 244 million ECU for the four-year period 1995-1998 respectively representing increases in budget of about 6% and 100% respectively.
The research programmes are mainly executed by shared cost actions by EU research institutes, universities, and industry consortia. The main themes for the environment and climate programme are research into the natural environmental, pollutants, natural catastrophes (floods, earthquakes, and volcanoes) environmental quality and global change; instruments and techniques for monitoring environmental parameters and processes; space techniques applied to environmental monitoring and research and the human dimensions of environmental change.  For the marine science and technology programme the principal themes are research on marine systems, extreme marine environments, and regional seas; strategic research on coastal and shelf seas and coastal engineering; generic and advanced systems for marine technologies.

My father returning from field research trips on icebreakers in the Artic to reviewing the ice melt, the increase in ocean and air temperatures and the effect of rising sea levels was convinced there would be severe repercussions for climate change and the delicate balance of the planet. “Global change is happening now and will affect us in our lifetime in ways that we can't possibly imagine.” He issued all in the family alpaca jumpers, installed insulation and turned down the thermostat in the house by 5 degrees. A measure only now advocated by governments over 30 years later.  My father was often unwavering in his views but always ready to help in problem solving and come in with the unexpected. When told that the rule book would not allow a course of action he would appeal to common sense and often help recast the rules to be practical and fair. A colleague said “He combined deep technical knowledge and passionate opposition to sloppy thinking - both very useful in a bureaucracy… And I also remember with pleasure how he would unexpectedly burst into song at the end of a meeting - usually an operatic aria  - and was often involved in choral singing….”
He retired from the European Commission in 1996 and became an adviser to Prince Laurent of Belgium on Environmental Affairs, a member of Governing Board of the Belgian National Orchestra, a senior scientific adviser to the European Global Ocean Observing System, a visiting lecturer at several European universities and a writer and adviser on food safety questions. His article on ‘dirty dishcloths’ was well remembered among Brussels circles warning people about the biohazards from germs in the kitchen.  He was a lifelong member of the member of the RSC and active member of the Brussels chapter.

When Brexit was being debated and the results of the referendum my father provided many scientific and policy inputs to ensure facts were correct about the impact of EU policies. He was severely upset by the outcome of the referendum and seemingly the undoing of his efforts for a united Europe where Britain played an essential part. He believed right up to the end of his life in the delivery of science to the wellbeing of mankind and the need for people to work together to overcome their differences.
In 1999 Paul Gray was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science by Birmingham University in recognition of his achievements in furthering the cause of science and contributions to major scientific frameworks. For my father the role of science was crucial to answer essential questions of life and being. He questioned all thoroughly using Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle but felt like Karl Popper that the answers found brought us all closer to a more eternal truth in his acceptance speech for his honorary DSc at Birmingham University he appealed to all graduand scientists concerning climate change and the rise in use of AI “It is not enough to say that this is a problem for the social scientists you as natural scientists have not only the knowledge but also a duty to contribute to the debate. …. Media reports are often based on statements of scientists who are less than honest. You must practice your profession with probity so that you may credibly defend reality in reasoned discussion. …” His view on the role of science was expressed in his quote of the great French writer Rabelais, “Science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul.” He stood up to politicians if they ignored the science and did get into trouble allegedly with Edith Cresson and also with Edwina Currie for doing so.

To conclude, my father didn’t see a contradiction between science and belief. He marvelled at new discoveries, having operated huge super computers in the 60’s and 70’s he was fascinated by the emergence of the PC spending hours exploring its capabilities and the Internet in his 70’s. in his own words of wonder in a sermon on science and creation he gave in 2008“…As a scientist I have been privileged to see wonderful things in God's Creation. I have looked into the heart of an operating nuclear reactor and seen the glorious blue of the Cerenkov radiation caused by particles travelling greater than the speed of light in water and I was in NASA in 1994 to see at first hand via the Hubble space telescope the Shoemaker-Levy comet crash into Jupiter….” He concluded “…The deepest scientific insight of the natural world causes us great wonder but tells us nothing about the real nature of God who is a spirit. But this does not leave us comfortless it points us to the necessity for revelation through faith…”

Ralph Waldo Emerson said “To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived — that is to have succeeded. “I think we can safely say Paul Gray helped leave this world a little better than when he entered it!