Dr Tannock (28), who reflects the wide range of skills to be found in the Edinburgh of the South, has already graduated from the University of Otago in absentia, after last December’s ceremonies were cancelled.
All the more than 220 Otago graduates attending today’s 1pm "special acknowledgement" event could not graduate, as planned, in person last year, but also graduated in absentia after all the university’s graduation ceremonies were cancelled.
The May and August ceremonies were called off because of Covid-19 restrictions, and the December graduations were cancelled for security reasons, after a threat was made.
Today’s event will be "bitter sweet" for Dr Tannock because the pandemic means his parents in Scotland cannot attend, and his grandmother, Robina Tannock, recently died.
"My parents, [Logan and Anne Tannock] are going to be watching the livestream [of the ceremony] back home at midnight," he said.
Born in Stirling, in central Scotland, Dr Tannock undertook secondary school studies while living in Sauchie, a nearby town where his parents still live.
Today’s piping will be almost business as usual, given he is a pipe sergeant with the City of Dunedin Pipe Band and has shared graduation piping duties regularly over the past three years.
He is also getting used to such ceremonies being cancelled at the last minute, having been waiting to join the morning capping procession near the university Dental School, in Great King St, on December 9 last year, when he was told the event had been cancelled.
He appreciated the wider safety concerns, and took the outcome in his stride.
Today, he will lead the procession along George St, with fellow members of the pipe band, and will also pipe academic staff into the town hall, before the event starts.
It was "very unlikely" that the piping, the procession and the special capping event would be called off.
However, there was always the chance that something unexpected could happen at any time, he said.
His partner, Nabila Tahsin, has a full-time job in Dunedin, and he is also looking for a job in a city he has become fond of.
"When I got off the plane four years ago, the trees looked different and the birds sounded a bit different, but it just looked like home."
