John Mavor was a pioneer in the design of MOS transistors and Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) for signal processing.
During his career as an educator and researcher at the University of Edinburgh he was appointed Professor before becoming Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Mavor’s most active research was in MOS transistors and Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) for signal processing, in conjunction with a number of research students, notably: Don MacLennan, Neil Weste, Peter Denyer, Colin Cowan, Colin Carruthers and Neil Petrie.
His research cooperation led to the International Charge-Coupled Devices Conference Series, co-organised by Isaac Lagnado of NOSC, San Diego and Dennis D. Buss of Texas Instruments.
He developed each of the campuses: at Craighouse with a new teaching building; at Craiglockhart with a new Business School lecture theatre; and at Merchiston a 500-seat student computing facility.