Michael Duff was an outstanding researcher with a long and distinguished history in the IAPR.
In 1976, Michael founded the British Pattern Recognition Association (BPRA), which later became the British Machine Vision Association (BMVA). In 1980, he led the affiliation of the BPRA as an IAPR member society, and from 1984 to 1992, he was an IAPR Governing Board representative for the BPRA. During that time, he was also a founder and the first Chair of IAPR Technical Committee 6, Special Purpose Architectures (1982–84).
In direct service to the IAPR, Michael was an exemplary leader on multiple committees. He served on the Executive Committee as Secretary for three consecutive terms (1984–90), then became the IAPR President (1990–92) and Past President (1992–94). He was a member of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee for two terms (1984–86 and 2000–02) and served three consecutive terms as its Chair (1994–2000). He was also Chair of the Membership Committee (1986–2000), the Nominating Committee (1992–94), and founding Chair of the Advisory Committee (2000–04). In addition, he served as an ordinary member of the IAPR Publications and Publicity Committee by virtue of his role as the IAPR Newsletter Editor (1999–2002) and as a Program Chair for ICPR 1994.
Altogether, Michael Duff made significant contributions to the advancement of the IAPR and its UK BPRA national member society over 34 years.