University lecturers come in many shapes and sizes - and with many personalities. Athene Donald, professor of physics in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, used to introduce a few characters with whom you may be familiar.

¡°Here I describe variations on the theme of university lecturers, although of course that title is not meant to say anything about an individual¡¯s seniority, merely that their job is to lecture,¡± she writes.

First up is ¡°Dr Energetic¡±, who ¡°paces up and down the lecture theatre, their arms waving wildly as they try to put an important point across¡±. Not one for those hung-over students hoping to catch ¡°a quick kip after a hard night¡¯s drinking¡±, she says, although with such characters ¡°even boring or turgid subjects may come alive enough to render them intelligible¡±.

¡°Dr Inaudible¡± is next. ¡°They may be the most intelligent person you will ever meet, with a solid grasp of every fact they are trying to convey and a neat turn of phrase to illustrate difficult concepts, but if they are not audible beyond the first two rows in the lecture theatre (and disdain being wired up with a microphone), all this is in vain.¡± Alternatively, Professor Donald speculates, they may be inaudible because they ¡°totally lack confidence in the material they have been assigned to teach¡±.

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Third on the list is ¡°Dr Dusty¡±. ¡°I am of an age to have once been lectured to by a gentleman in a gown,¡± the blog continues. ¡°The dust - chalk dust - was obvious. For others the dust may be less visible or more metaphorical, but many lecturers look as if they have been curled up in a corner for many years and are only let out on licence for their annual lecturing duties.¡±

Closely related is ¡°Dr Dry-as-Dust¡±: ¡°Old in character if not in chronological years, probably pernickety and dull, these characters do tend to take their lecturing duties seriously¡­not least because they aren¡¯t interested in research and possess the leadership and administrative skills of a baby mouse.¡±

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Meanwhile, ¡°Dr Absent-minded¡± has a reputation for ¡°forgetting to turn up¡±, while ¡°Dr Ultramodern¡± is always one step ahead of the technological trend. ¡°When the world was using blackboards, Dr Ultramodern had progressed to the overhead projector.¡±

Last on the list (visit the blog for more on Dr Careless and Dr Famed-as- Charismatic) are Dr I-don¡¯t-want-to-be-here, and Dr I¡¯m-not-here. The former believes they are ¡°too important to have to lecture¡±, while the latter simply decides not to show up at all.

¡°The students turn up only to find that their lecturer has indeed got on [a] plane and vanished, without troubling to find a stand-in.¡± Reacting on Twitter, Richard Ashcroft (), professor of bioethics in the School of Law at Queen Mary, University of London, said he thought ¡°on various days I can be any of these things (with the exception of Dr I¡¯m- not-here)¡±.

Martin George () pointed out an oversight. ¡°I¡¯ve given your ¡®Lecturer Spotting¡¯ post careful thought as it applies to me, and concluded you¡¯ve missed one: DR AWESOME,¡± said the University of Birmingham law lecturer.

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