A FUNDRAISING auction takes place this weekend as part of a campaign to create a scholarship in memory of a much-loved academic.

Pots, pans, silver and pictures go under the hammer at Elvet Methodist Church Hall in Old Elvet, Durham City, at noon on Saturday.

The auction will raise money to set up a scholarship in memory of Prof Peter Evans, the respected zoologist who was head of Durham University's Biological Sciences department until his death at the age of 64.

After school at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, Prof Evans gained degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge and was appointed a lecturer in zoology at Durham University in 1968.

A keen ornithologist, who studied birds from observatories on the Northumberland Coast, he emerged as a world authority on wading seabirds and pioneered radar tracking and route mapping to determine how birds navigate the globe in mass migrations.

In later years, he became known as a regional television presenter and an ardent campaigner on ecological issues.

During his time at the university, Prof Evans played a key role in establishing Durham University's campus at Stockton and carried out much of his research on the mudflats of the Tees Estuary at Teesside.

Married with two sons, he was on the verge of retirement when he died of cancer in September 2001.

The appeal to create a memorial fund in his name, which is chaired by former vice-chancellor Sir Fred Holliday, aims to raise £100,000 to fund a bursary for a student carrying out research with potential ecological benefit to the North-East and hopes to make its first award in October 2008 - the 40th anniversary of Prof Evans' arrival in Durham.

Viewing prior to Saturday's auction takes place from 10am with antiques, prints, furniture, bric-a-brac, books and photographs for sale, along with vouchers from a number of Durham's shops.