Peter Scott-Morgan (OK 1976)

A renowned scientist and robotics expert whose diagnosis of motor neurone disease prompted his transformation into ‘the first true cyborg in history’.

Peter Bowman Scott was born in Wandsworth in 1958, the son of Bowman Scott (OK 1937), who had been a wartime army colonel at 26 and was appointed MBE for organising signals for the D-Day landings. His mother was Marie (née Ranger), who had trained to be a doctor. His brother is Robert Bowman Scott (OK 1971). Peter was Head Boy in the Junior School. He went on to study computer science at Imperial College, earning the first PhD to be awarded by a British robotics department. He entered into a civil partnership with Francis Morgan in 2005, and they combines their surnames to Scott-Morgan. In 1994 he published The Unwritten Rules of the Game, an account of the inner workings of organisations. He became the youngest junior partner at the management consultancy Arthur D Little in Boston, Massachusetts. Peter addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos and became a sought-after speaker. The Scott-Morgan Foundation, established after Peter’s diagnosis, works with scientists and engineers to use AI, robotics and other high-tech systems to transform the lives of those “restricted by age, ill-health, disability, or any other physical or mental disadvantages”.

Peter Scott-Morgan died of complications from motor neurone disease on 15 June 2022, aged 64