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Professor Chris Thurston (29 June 1944-18 July 2008)

Chris Thurston died after a long illness at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in London. He had suffered profound brain damage following a major heart attack 8 years ago and remained in care for almost all this time. Chris was a polymath, an adventurous and successful researcher and an accomplished teacher, administrator and communicator. During his academic career, conducted almost entirely in the University of London Colleges, he played a major role in the development of microbiology and higher education in London. Chris always made a big impression: he was unusually articulate, humorous and generous.

Chris was a London microbiologist through and through, but not a Londoner by birth. Born in Norfolk, he went to King Edward VI School in Norwich, where he was Head of House, and active in school rowing, drama and the choir. Chris was also a Norwich Cathedral chorister. After his arrival in University College London (UCL) as an undergraduate, Chris never left the capital to work, apart from a sabbatical period (1979-80) with Bob Schmidt at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, USA.

Chris had entered UCL to read microbiology, but in the Department of Botany. Microbiology departments were very thin on the ground, so Chris obtained his degree under a hybrid scheme jointly administered by UCL and Queen Elizabeth College London (QEC), where microbiology was well established. Chris stayed at UCL to do a PhD on the alga - under the supervision of Philip Syrett. When Syrett was appointed to a chair at Swansea, Ian Morris acted as supervisor.

It may seem extraordinary to 21st century young scientists that, while still working for a PhD, Chris was appointed in 1969 to the first lectureship in Biochemistry at QEC in leafy (and trendy) Kensington. In 1970, having obtained his PhD, he transferred to the Microbiology Department, an influential, vigorous and congenial consortium. The Department was established in 1961 from a Bacteriology Department that had existed since 1914. At the time of Chris's move there, the Department comprised John Pirt (the only Professor and Head of Department), together with 'Simos' Anagnostopoulos, Brian Bainbridge, Michael Bazin, Don Kelly, Ted Mathison and Tony Trinci. (Shortly after, in 1975, this author joined to replace Don Kelly). Of these lecturers, six became university professors - remarkable then, less remarkable now. Equally remarkable was the peripatetic electric typewriter that was used by all staff except John Pirt, who had both typewriter and a secretary to use it. It was certainly not remarkable to be appointed to a permanent academic position without a PhD; indeed, Chris took the place of Mr John Birch in John Pirt's group, and Brian Bainbridge, Don Kelly and Tony Trinci were all appointed before award of their PhDs. Nevertheless, PhD or not, Chris made quite an impression as an extremely bright yet sociable new colleague at QEC.

One of the defining characteristics of Chris's research career was his enthusiasm for tackling technically and intellectually difficult projects. Those topics would be challenging now, but truly daunting in the 1970s and 1980s. Chris stuck with the intransigent C. fusca for over 15 years. However, for most of the 1980s, he became fascinated by another, apparently unrelated, line of research on the design and fabrication of redox-mediated electrochemical sensors using whole micro-organisms. In collaboration with Peter Bennetto (Chemistry Department), Jeremy Mason, John Stirling (Biochemistry), Sibel Roller and Gerard Delaney, over a dozen papers, chapters and patents were generated. The two most cited (Roller et al., 1984, J Chem Tech Biotechnol 134B, 3-12; Delaney et al., ibid. 13-27; 79 and 90 citations, respectively) quantify the reduction by diverse bacteria of dyes and show how an appropriate combination of microbe, mediator dye and oxidizable substrate can generate significant, anodic electrode potentials. Subsequent papers described electrochemical bioreactors for treatment of carbohydrate wastes and effluents and application of the principle to biosensors and a sucrose fuel cell to achieve efficient biomass conversions.

Throughout, the science was the motivating force for Chris, but he wanted to share the excitement too and so took great pains to explain his work to others - at home, over the snooker table and to his many colleagues and friends. Equally, he was an excellent listener and always curious to learn what others were doing and how they were doing it.

In 1992, he published his first paper on the molecular genetics of the commercial mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, launching the most productive and highly cited era of his tragically short career. In collaboration with excellent postdoctoral researchers and his long-standing friend David Wood (HRI) and funded by competitive research council grants, Chris tackled the cloning and characterization of genes encoding proteins involved in the degradation of cellulose, a process critical to the commercial production of the mushroom. Laccase (polyphenol oxidase) received the most attention since it is an abundant glycoprotein that constitutes 2% of mycelial protein during vegetative growth. Chris also published significant papers on A. bisporus proteinases, xylanase and peroxidases and, in particular, the cellulases that enable growth on crystalline cellulose as carbon source; four cellulose-growth specific (cel) genes were isolated and characterized and their regulation elucidated. These papers (e.g. Yagüe et al., 1997, Microbiology 143, 239-244; Smith et al., 1998, Microbiology 144, 1063-1069) illustrate beautifully Chris's concise and precise writing and a clarity of thought and expression. This topic occupied Chris until his illness, generating en route his most highly cited paper, a valuable review in Microbiology (Thurston, 1994, 140, 19-26; 578 citations to date). It is quite typical of Chris's modesty that this review acknowledges David Wood as follows: '...from whom I have learned greatly about laccases and other fungal enzymes; he is not however responsible for any errors or omissions - they simply reflect my imperfect learning'.

Chris served the SGM with dedication and distinction. He was for many years (1987-92) an Editor of the Journal of General Microbiology (the predecessor of Microbiology) and served as Professional Affairs Officer (1993-98).

His inclination to incisive thought and reasoning and his love of precise measurements and instrumentation were reflected in Chris's many other interests. He greatly admired optically and mechanically fine cameras and we enjoyed many long debates on the relative merits of rangefinder, large format and SLR cameras. I suspect that Chris would not have objected to the assertion that he treasured the photographic apparatus as much as the images. He appreciated fine Eastern carpets, wines, whiskies (and was a founding member of the exclusive QEC Malt Whisky Society), cigars (for a while) and food (offering, for example, a postdoctoral colleague a dinner party recipe for watercress, date and orange salad). In these worldly pleasures, as in his published research output, Chris valued quality over quantity. At lunchtimes, in QEC days, he would walk through the lanes of Holland Park adjacent to the College, discussing work, life and experiments with a few close colleagues. Chris had a rare regard for an appropriate work/life balance.

Chris was humorous, a mine of information and an observer of small detail. He loved The Times crosswords. Chris also had style. In a decade where many of his colleagues paraded dubious sartorial taste (and I dare not mention by name which colleagues), Chris favoured highly polished, brown brogue shoes and tailored, crisp shirts, and his trademark, reddish hair was always well cut and brushed. With his wife Sue, and later their daughter Anna, they lived in beautifully restored period houses. His office at QEC was very organized; neat examples of his curious, rather spidery handwriting were carefully filed.

In the College community, Chris will probably be best remembered for his outstanding contributions to College management through services to at least 20 Committees and Boards during his 31 years at QEC/King's. In 1975-76, he represented the Academic Board of QEC on the College Council, and was later a major driving force in the University of London Board of Studies. He was instrumental in some of the most tumultuous mergers and reorganizations the University has seen. He was a member of the joint Working Party for the merger of QEC, Chelsea College and King's College (1983-85) and played a similar role from 1994 on the Academic Planning Team for the King's/UMDS merger. He was Deputy Head of the Division of Biosphere Sciences from 1988 to 1991 and retained a high profile in Divisional management in its successor, Life Sciences. He worked tirelessly with Marian Simmonds on 'The Cornwall House Project' to plan and bring to fruition the move of the Kensington scientists to Waterloo, generating through a PFI the current home of Biomedical and Health Sciences - the Franklin-Wilkins Building. His work for the project planning team involved innumerable plans, measurements, and company representatives, not to mention a great deal of hassle. These were trying times, yet Chris remained incredibly resilient, exuberant and professional in all his dealings. He made trips overseas to inspect laboratories already designed and furnished by tendering companies: a trip to California was memorable for his hotel room, which was accessed by a high walkway - unsuited to his vertigo. Today's Franklin-Wilkins Building on the South Bank is largely based on the scheme that he helped to generate for disposition of the office, social, teaching, library and research space.

Chris was a thorough, systematic teacher and examiner yet with no sense of self-importance. His intellect never got in the way. Keith Gull remembers Chris accepting with good grace a prank involving the removal of his office door (yes, the removal of the office door) and hiding it in a basement room for a week!

Chris was, in Sue Thurston's words, curious, kind and contented. He was a fine gentleman and an accomplished scientist. The plethora of his accomplishments endeared him to so many. Their loss and sorrow must be compounded by the nature of his long illness.

I am very much indebted to Sue Thurston, Keith Gull, Janet Hurst, Joy Poole, Sibel Roller, John Stirling, Tony Trinci and Ann Wood for the recollections, constructive comments and invaluable information received during the writing of this obituary.

Robert Poole, The University of Sheffield

Professor Norbert Pfennig (8 July 1925-11 February 2008)

Norbert Pfennig, former professor of limnology and microbial ecology at the University of Konstanz, Germany, has died, aged 82. Born in 1925, he studied biology in Göttingen and soon concentrated on microbiology under the guidance of August Rippel-Baldes. In 1952, he obtained his doctoral degree in organic chemistry under Hans Brockmann. He became an adjunct professor of microbiology in Göttingen in 1964 and later the head of a research group for nutritional physiology of micro-organisms.

When Hans Schlegel joined the Göttingen Institute for Microbiology in 1959 and brought along water samples from a pond with obvious development of purple phototrophic sulfur bacteria, Norbert decided to try to cultivate them. Within 2 years, he had explored the growth demands and invented a specific technique employing defined media to further enrich and finally isolate these barely cultivable, fastidious bacteria.

A research visit with Cornelis van Niel at Pacific Grove, California, deepened his interest in phototrophs, and he remained an admirer of van Niel as a researcher and teacher. After the discovery of the importance of vitamin B12 for the cultivation of phototrophs, a broad range of these bacteria was isolated in pure culture and characterized in depth. From his days in van Niel's lab, co-operations arose with Germaine Cohen-Bazire and Roger Stanier, leading to detailed electron microscopic studies of the intracellular membrane arrangement and the discovery of the Chlorobium vesicles. The following years were filled with numerous studies of phototrophs and their taxonomic organization, to which his first postdoc, Hans Trüper, contributed, and he served Bergey's Manual as a Trustee for many years.

New research fields opened up during a study of green phototrophs. From an enrichment culture of Chlorobium-like phototrophs on ethanol, the first pure cultures of ethanol- and acetate-oxidizing sulfur reducers were obtained (with Hanno Biebl), along with the discovery of a syntrophic co-operation through a sulfur/sulfide cycle. These and numerous sulfate reducers (with Friedrich Widdel) were also the basis for a long-lasting friendship with Rudolf Thauer who studied the biochemistry of these novel bacteria.

In 1979, Norbert accepted a professorship at the University of Konstanz until his retirement in 1990. As a scientist always searching for holistic explanations, he saw the micro-organism not only as a cell or strain with metabolic capabilities, but also as part of the ecosystem with its specific challenges, including limiting substrate supply, light of varying intensity and quality, and metabolic exchange with partner organisms. Inspired by this philosophy and his new position, he entered a new phase in his career, extending his research on the interaction of microbes with their natural environment. Lake Konstanz and small lakes and ditches in the area became the objects of research and teaching, with a focus on the activities of anaerobic bacteria, especially the phototrophs, the sulfate reducers and syntrophic methanogenic co-cultures.

Unlike many traditional professors, he gave an enormous amount of freedom to his scientists and acted more like a colleague, always curious to exchange news. His lectures and courses were characterized by a similar attitude; he did not regard himself as someone who simply had to transfer knowledge, but to convey the attitude of asking questions, always willing to learn from the microbes. He enjoyed discoveries like any graduate student, even the small breakthroughs, and used to express this by his unconstrained laughter.

He was awarded the Research Prize of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie in 1980, he was a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, and an honorary member of the SGM and the Vereinigung für Allgemeine und Angewandte Mikrobiologie in Germany. He was awarded the Bergey Medal in 1992 and received an Honory Doctoral Degree from the University of Bonn.

The microbiological community in Germany and abroad has lost one of its most prominent members and founding fathers, one of the last representatives of a general microbiology based on a specific feeling for the microbes' capabilities and demands from the ecological perspective. Several of his discoveries changed and extended our understanding of the action of microbes in nature. Those closer to him lost a personal friend of unusual modesty, an honourable personality with an open mind. Our sympathy is with his wife Helga, five children and nine grandchildren.

Friedrich Widdel, Bremen; Bernhard Schink, Konstanz

Professor Sir Howard Dalton FRS (8 February 1944-12 January 2008)

Howard Dalton Howard was born in New Malden, Surrey, the son of a lorry driver. He was highly intelligent with an inquiring mind and his early interest in science was evident from his many exploits with cocktails of chemicals, which often had explosive consequences. Having survived many escapades with these early ‘laboratory’ experiments, Howard was eager to learn more and his mother was extremely proud of him passing the 11+ examination and attending Raynes Park Grammar School. Howard was awarded a place at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London, graduating in 1965 with a BSc in Microbiology. His research career started when he undertook a DPhil with Professor John Postgate FRS at the ARC Unit of Nitrogen Fixation, University of Sussex, where he worked on nitrogen fixation in the soil bacterium Azotobacter and helped to elucidate how this aerobic soil bacterium protects its nitrogenase from oxygen damage by augmentation of respiration and conformational protection mechanisms. Howard then worked for 2 years as a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Len Mortensen at Purdue University, Indiana, on the biochemistry of nitrogenase in the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium.

Ever resourceful, while in the USA he avoided the possibility of being drafted to Vietnam by his ordination into the Universal Life Church, ironically on 1 April 1969!

Recognizing that electron spin resonance spectroscopic techniques were going to be of great importance in the study of metaloproteins, Howard returned to the University of Sussex in 1970 to work with Dr Bob Bray in the Department of Chemistry on two molybdenum-containing enzymes, nitrate reductase from Aspergillus nidulans and xanthine dehydrogenase from Veillonella alcalescens. The following year, Howard married Kira Rozdestvensky, whom he had met while living in the USA, and when Professor Roger Whittenbury persuaded Howard to take up a lectureship in Microbiology at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick in 1973, they settled in the village of Radford Semele near Leamington Spa. Roger recalls that Warwick in those days was hardly a magnet for microbiologists, offering only an abandoned chemistry laboratory containing just two pieces of equipment, a broken piano and a dartboard! A brief chat about his background and a promise that he would work on Roger’s beloved methane-oxidizing bacteria and that was sufficient to initiate Howard’s long and illustrious tenure at Warwick.

Howard built up a large research group at Warwick and pioneered work on two enzymes involved in bacterial oxida tion of methane, a soluble, cytoplasmic methane mono-oxygenase (MMO) and a completely distinct membrane-bound particulate MMO. These remarkable enzymes can convert methane, a rather inert compound, into methanol. Howard and colleagues were able to purify and characterize them at the biochemical and molecular level, work which led to much of our current understanding of the structure and catalytic mechanisms of these MMOs. Howard also quickly realized that the soluble MMO had remarkable co-oxidation properties, which stimulated a longstanding interest in biocatalysis and biotransformations using MMO and other oxygenases. Through this research he also made extremely important contributions to research into the use of microbes to produce chemicals, work which was to stimulate his later interests in biofuels. He was consultant for the New Jersey company Celanese and then joined the Scientific Advisory Board for the spin-out biotechnology company Celgene, which gave him considerable insight into chemical and industrial aspects of microbiology that he used to good effect in his biotransformation research. All of this research at Warwick brought him a much-deserved international reputation, yielded many seminal publications in a career generating well over 250 scientific papers and opened up whole new research fields in the microbiology of one carbon (C1) compounds. Howard was awarded a Personal Chair at Warwick in 1983 and as his scientific career flourished, he and his colleagues were immensely proud of the accolades he received, especially his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1993, his appointment as President of the Society for General Microbiology (1997-2000), the award of the Leeuwenhoek Medal Lecture at the Royal Society in 2000 and his knighthood in the New Year Honours list in 2007 for his services to science.

Howard also made significant contributions to the life of the University of Warwick. He was Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences (1999-2002) and held many positions in the University dealing with academic matters and other areas of University life. His enthusiasm for and extensive knowledge of Japanese gardens were also brought into play on campus, resulting in the creation of two fine gardens at Warwick.

In 2002, Howard was seconded to become Chief Scientific Adviser to Defra, a role in which he sought to instil scientific rigour into policy-making decisions based on sound scientific evidence. Howard led the scientific advisory team generating the UK contingency plan for dealing with avian influenza virus and was instrumental in raising the profile of climate change as a significant threat, delivering lectures on this and other topics such as biofuels and GM crops at many national and international meetings. He was a great communicator and he wrote a highly entertaining and popular blog describing his 2 week visit to the British Antarctic Survey in 2006 where he observed at first hand the effects of global warming on ice fields in Antarctica. Throughout his time at Defra, Howard maintained strong links with the University, returning each Friday to look after his research group. He returned full time to Warwick in October 2007 and in the short time before his death had already delivered some insightful and entertaining lectures on science policy to final year undergraduates with his usual passion and engaging style.

Howard had an immense zest for science and life in general and was a fine sportsman in every sense of the word. In his early days at Warwick he was a regular in the Rowington Village cricket side; a fiery fast bowler and very useful left-handed batsman. He was a lifelong Spurs supporter and a highly competitive member of the Biological Sciences football team, aptly named 'Biohazard'. In the 1970s Howard performed with distinction in the ‘Biohazard’ team that played a friendly match with the Saudi Arabia national team, thereby adding to his illustrious international career. A great passion of Howard’s was real tennis and he was a member of Leamington Real Tennis Club where his competitive spirit, guile and ability won him many tournaments. It was here, while playing in a friendly doubles tournament, that he tragically collapsed and died on 12 January 2008. He had just returned from a month in The Gambia assisting his wife Kira in her extensive humanitarian work, setting up new schools and medical centres there. This work will now be assisted through generous contributions made to the African Oyster Trust in his memory. He was also excited by the prospect of advising the Gambian government on a number of important environmental issues.

Howard was a down-to-earth, self-effacing man, outgoing and witty and in the 1980s was a 'leading light' at gatherings of the staff of Biological Sciences at Warwick in weekly socials at local pubs (code-named 'Choir-Practice'!). He also enjoyed the occasional 'poker-night' with selected colleagues who invariably relieved him of his hard-earned cash. Howard’s penetrating questions and insightful comments at national and international scientific meetings always made for lively and stimulating debate and discussing science with him was always immensely rewarding. He was extremely generous of his time with well over 100 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, and it was a real privilege for me to work with him as a PhD student and then as a colleague for nearly 30 years. Above all else, he made science fun and was an inspirational mentor, a much-loved colleague and a dear friend. He will be very sorely missed. Howard is survived by his wife Kira and children (Christopher, Eric, Jeremy and Amber).

Colin Murrell, University of Warwick

John Grainger writes...

I first worked with Howard when he joined the committee of the then SGM Teaching Group. We were full of trepidation when we learnt that he was to become the next Council rep on the group, expecting by reputation for him to appear only occasionally at committee meetings and then bronzed and with his leg in plaster from a skiing incident, or some similar scrape. But we were totally wrong - he was absolutely excellent and put in 100% attendance. I have an abiding memory after one of our meetings at an SGM conference of him pushing his way to the bar and coming back with two handfuls of empty glasses. The Fermentation Group had had a symposium sponsored by a drinks firm and their officers couldn’t carry all the unused bottles back to Scotland by train. Hearing of their predicament, Howard had taken the excess off their hands for the sole benefit of the Teaching Group Committee! He was always very supportive of my work with schools and particularly influential when he was President.

Some SGM connections - Janet Hurst

Howard was always a great supporter of the SGM, joining in 1964 whilst still an undergraduate student. He was an elected member of Council (1985-1989), the period alluded to by John Grainger, before becoming President 10 years later. SGM staff have fond memories of Howard - he was great to work with and chaired Council meetings humorously but well. He was a bon viveur who always seemed to know a good restaurant in the locality of a scientific meeting, providing us with a welcome change from university fare (but at a cost much to the treasurer’s disapproval). Particularly memorable was a ceilidh at Heriot-Watt, where Howard’s anarchic refusal to follow the caller brought complete chaos to the dance. Howard was involved with the Society right up to the end. He was a keynote speaker in the plenary at the Edinburgh meeting in September 2007 and instrumental, in his Defra role, in commissioning SGM to carry out the independent inquiry into bTB research currently being completed. He will be sadly missed.

Professor Douglas Watson (20 November 1931-4 September 2007)

Members will be sad to hear that Douglas Watson has died. Douglas was a respected internationally renowned virologist, a dedicated teacher and a very thorough and capable administrator. He was enthusiastic, wise, empathic and had a piercing dry wit. During his career Douglas gave unstintingly of his time and expertise to the SGM in a number of roles.

Born in Sheffield, Douglas was educated at the city's King Edward VII School and later at the High School of Stirling. He graduated from the University of Glasgow with a First in Chemistry and was awarded the Mackay Prize as most distinguished graduate in his discipline. His postgraduate work, also in Glasgow, centred on electron microscopic studies on crystal growth. As an Assistant Lecturer he went on to collaborate with John Norris to investigate crystals in Bacillis thuringiensis. In 1960 Douglas accepted the offer to join Michael Stoker and Peter Wildy as the electron microscopist in the newly formed Institute of Virology in Glasgow. Prior to moving into the Institute, Douglas worked with Tony Waterson and Bob Horne in Cambridge. On returning to Glasgow in 1961 he began a long and happy collaboration with Peter Wildy, this resulting in a very significant contribution to electron microscopic quantitative and structural studies of herpesvirus. On Peter Wildy's appointment to the Chair of Virology and Bacteriology in the University of Birmingham, Douglas followed him in 1964 and was soon promoted to the role of Senior Lecturer. It was here that he began his lifelong studies on the proteins and antigens of the herpesviruses. In 1968 he took up a Visiting Fellowship in Canberra at the John Curtis School of Medical Research’s Department. His work on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with Nigel Dimmock proved to be one of the most cited articles on the subject. In 1969 he returned to Birmingham as Reader in Virology.

In 1972 Douglas was appointed to the newly formed Chair of General Microbiology at the University of Leeds and served as Head of Microbiology for two decades. He was joined by fellow virologists Ian Halliburton and Dick Killington, and later Bob Honess, Ken Powell and Dorothy Purifoy. Douglas led a major transformation in the Department which became the largest of its kind in the UK. In 1984 under his research leadership the Virology unit at Leeds received the significant accolade from the Medical Research Council as the MRC Herpesvirus Research Group.

Douglas used his management skills to the advantage of the University of Leeds and served on the major policy-making committees. He commanded enormous esteem and respect for his finely honed intellect and capacity for incisive analysis and commitment to the well being of the institution, its staff and students. He served as Dean of Staff (1989–1991) and as Pro-Vice Chancellor from 1991 until his retirement in 1993.

On a personal note, Douglas was my mentor at Leeds for several years. During that time he helped shape my career and made me realize just how important it is to be an all round academic. I am grateful for his direct, fair and caring advice. My fondest memories will always be of Douglas with a wee dram in one hand and a cigarette in the other late at night at a scientific meeting discussing science in the way that only Douglas could.

Douglas was a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of General Virology from its inception in 1966, was appointed Editor in 1969 and Editor-in-Chief from 1971 to 1975. Thereafter, he was Convenor of the Virus Group. In 1980 he was 'honoured and privileged' to become Treasurer for the SGM, a position he held for 7 years. He transformed the financial status of the Society to the point whereby in 1987 it had assets of £2.6m, with no increase in membership fees. In addition his innovative approach led to the creation of, amongst others, the SGM Research Fund, the Third World Microbiology Fund and the Postgraduate Meetings Fund. The SGM also brought romance for Douglas and in 1993 he married Hilary Bower, the Executive Secretary of the Society.

Our condolences go to Hilary, and to Douglas' children from his first marriage, Shirley and Donald and their families.

Dick Killington, Leeds

Professor Simon Baumberg (5 March 1940-11 April 2007)

Simon Baumberg was one of the most respected members of the UK microbiology community. Simon went to Merton College, Oxford on a scholarship in 1958 and graduated in chemistry in 1961. Initially he was intent on a career in chemistry but as an undergraduate, he acquired a life-long interest in microbial genetics. Following his graduation, Simon joined the Oxford Physical Chemistry Laboratory to study for a doctorate under the supervision of Nobel laureate, C.S. Hinshelwood.

Even at the outset of his research career, Simon demonstrated a remarkable ability for independent critical thinking. Rejecting the thesis of his supervisor that bacteria adapted to changes in their environment via a process involving purely chemical kinetics, Simon quickly identified the innovative work of Jacob and Monod at the Institut Pasteur and Bill Hayes at the Hammersmith Hospital who showed that gene regulation rather than 'chemical kinetics' was the basis for the extraordinary ability of bacteria to respond to changes in their environment. The results from his thesis, published by Simon as the sole author, have stood the test of time. After the award of his doctorate, Simon then spent two highly enjoyable and productive years as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of one of the pioneers of the study of gene regulation, Dr Henry J. Vogel, Rutgers University, New Jersey.

Simon returned to the UK in 1966 to take up the appointment of Lecturer in the newly formed Department of Genetics at Leeds University. He was Head of Department on several occasions and remained at Leeds until his retirement in 2005. His research on bacterial gene expression focused on arginine metabolism in Bacillus species and antibiotic synthesis in Streptomyces species. He discovered the AhrC protein of B. subtilis, a repressor/activator of arginine metabolism, and with Peter Stockley analysed its activation and interaction with DNA. Together with Kenny McDowell, he analysed the complex physiological controls involved in the regulation of the biosynthesis antibiotics such as actinorhodin from S. coelicolor.

Simon was a true academic with a keen sense of what was important and a strong dislike for what he often saw as self-serving administration. As a teacher he was universally admired for his gentle but persuasive approach to learning and many of his former students were privileged to become his friends. When Simon was eventually made a Professor by Leeds University, many felt this was a long overdue recognition of his services, not only to that university, but also to the UK genetics and microbiology communities.

Throughout his career Simon was valued as much for his sound judgement, integrity and sense of fair play as for his outstanding scholarship. He was committed to the old-fashioned concept of the 'common good' - through his involvement with scientific research, the students he taught, the Jewish community, and his kindness to everyone that he met in all walks of life. Simon served as General Secretary and Vice-President of the Genetics Society, Senior Editor of the Journal of General Microbiology (now Microbiology), Convener of the Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Group and elected Council Member for the SGM. He was elected as an Honorary Member of the SGM in recognition of his contribution to the Society over more than 20 years.

Simon served on a number of committees of the Medical Research Council, including chairing the Advisory Board, the Non-Clinical Training Fellowships and Career Development Panel and the Stem Cell Bank Users Liaison Committee. He was also a member of the Biological Sciences panel for the 1996 and 2001 Research Assessment Exercises and was subsequently called upon to provide honest and perceptive advice to many university departments preparing for the 2008 exercise. He listened carefully to opinions and was kind and attentive to the most junior member of any team, committee or organization for which he worked. He was also a gentle though perceptive critic, whether examining students or having to explain to an influential scientist why he or she would not be getting the research funds to which they felt they were entitled. In recognition of his service to science, he has awarded an OBE in the 2005 New Year's Honours list - an award he always found amusing, given his instinctive lack of self-importance.

Simon was an active and committed member of the Leeds Jewish community. He was actively involved in the Soviet Jewry campaign during the 1980s. More recently he served as chair of Leeds Masorti community, and on the board of Sinai reform Synagogue. He was on the organizing committee of Leeds Day Limmud, and recently was appointed as its chair. In all these various activities his contribution was immeasurable; the breadth of his interests and associations, the depth of his knowledge, and the civility of his manner were unparalleled. His contributions to the cultural and religious life of the community will be sorely missed.

Despite remaining active in the scientific and Jewish communities, Simon found time in retirement for his long-standing passion for hill-walking and his rekindled love of choral singing. All his life he had a passion for classical music, particularly the twentieth century masters, and history. He loved debate and discussion, talk and listening. His activities were interrupted by a minor stroke earlier this year, and it was during his treatment that pancreatic cancer was discovered. Despite his considerable achievements, Simon was an extraordinarily modest man who would have been slightly bemused at the hundreds of friends and colleagues who turned out on an unseasonably hot Sunday afternoon in early April to pay their respects at his funeral. His spirit and deep sense of humanity live on in Simon and Ruth's sons Jeremy, Adam and Ben and four grandchildren, Lizzie, Cassie, Danny and Raphael.

Colin Harwood, Newcastle

Professor Dr Miloslav Kocur (1929-2006)

Miroslav Kocur Known to so many people in the microbial taxonomy and culture collection worlds, the passing of Miloslav Kocur has meant the loss of a big-hearted man with great personal and professional qualities. He will be greatly missed.

Milos studied microbiology at the University of Brno, Czechoslovakia, and after his graduation was appointed as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Microbiology. Here, in 1964, under the encouragement of Professor Martinec, he started the collection of bacteria, and within a short period of time he succeeded in building up an institute of considerable importance. The Czech Collection of Microorganisms (CCM) soon became a member of the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC) and the European Culture Collections' Organization (ECCO) to which he contributed significantly in many ways. He served as a WFCC Committee member and was Chairman of the ECCO for two terms. In 1981, he organized the WFCC's IVth International Conference on Culture Collections in Brno and at the same time prepared an international course for the curators of microbial collections from developing countries, under the aegis of UNESCO.

Milos was an enthusiastic champion of rising young microbiologists and a tireless organizer of conferences. He is remembered particularly for the regular events on the taxonomy of bacteria held at the CCM. These and similar events always enabled a rich exchange of ideas and put Brno firmly on the microbiology map. As many of his friends have remarked, Milos was a great bridge-builder.

His professional and communication skills were recognized by many national and international organizations. For several years he was Chairman of the Czechoslovak Society for Microbiology (CSM) and he contributed to the founding of the Federation of Czechoslovak Collections of Micro-organisms and to the co-ordination of its activities. He became Chair, Vice Chair or President of several international organizations, including FEMS (1988-1993), ECCO (1986-1993), CSM (1990-1992 and honorary member), and was an IUMS Member at Large (1991-1994) He was also Vice Chair and Member of various subcommittees of the ICSB (1978-1990), and a member of the editorial boards of three ublications.

In his scientific work he specialized in the taxonomy of bacteria, focusing particularly on the family Micrococcaceae. Over the years, he became a highly regarded specialist with an associated wide breadth of knowledge. He was author/coauthor of several chapters of Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology/Systematic Bacteriology and published over 140 scientific papers. His contribution to taxonomy was also recognized by the naming of a novel bacterial species and a new genus in his honour, Planococcus kocurii.

This record shows that he was a major contributor to bacterial taxonomy and to the development of microbial resource centres, and his professional achievements will long stand the passage of time. But for those that knew and worked with him, he will be remembered best for his cheerful smile, his consideration for others and for his enjoyment of life. We mourn his loss and send deep condolences to his family.

Barbara Kirsop, Electronic Publishing Trust for Development, and colleagues

Thomas Henry Flewett (29 June 1922-12 December 2006)

Thomas Henry Flewett MD, FRCPath, FRCP and Consultant Emeritus, was formerly Consultant Virologist at East Birmingham Hospital. Tom was born in India where his father worked for the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at Campbell College, Belfast and graduated with honours in medicine from Queen's University in 1945. After periods working at NIMR, Mill Hill and as a Lecturer at University of Leeds, he was appointed Director of the newly established Regional Virus Laboratory at East Birmingham Hospital. Here his interests in virus diseases and electron microscopy led him to provide a comprehensive service and into research on the viral causes of childhood diarrhoea, an important and worldwide problem. It was also to make his reputation.

Norwalk virus had been discovered in the US in 1971 and other, larger viruses had been seen in gut biopsies in Australia. Tom showed that these latter viruses could be seen readily by EM in stool extracts and, from their wheel-like appearance, called them rotaviruses - a name now used everywhere.

Other viruses (e.g. adenoviruses, caliciviruses, astroviruses) were also noted, but it was his work on rotaviruses that made the greatest impact. Similar rotaviruses were found in the diarrhoeal stools of virtually every animal species in which they were sought. Tom was in the thick of this research that involved collaborators in many countries, many of who visited, and often worked in, his laboratory, which was designated as a WHO Reference and Research Centre for Rotavirus Infections from 1980 until his retirement in 1987.

Tom's work on rotaviruses brought him international fame both as a virologist and as an electron microscopist. He was, inter alia, a World Health Organization consultant in Spain, Kenya, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Mexico - all countries in which childhood diarrhoea was, and is, a major problem. He was Chairman of the WHO Steering Committee on Viral Diarrhoeal Diseases, 1990-93, and a Member until 1996. He was in demand as a consultant, external examiner, visiting lecturer and journal editor, as well as a friend and helpful colleague. He was also a member of the Board of the Public Health Laboratory Service from 1977 to 1983 and Chairman of the PHLS Committee on Electron Microscopy from 1977 to 1987. He published over 120 papers on a variety of virological topics, many on the viruses of childhood diarrhoea.

The bare factual bones of career do not, though, convey the nature of the man. Small of stature, silver-haired and quick of thought and action, he was a hands-on leader of his laboratory. Naturally short-sighted, he wore thick-rimmed glasses and, like many with the same difficulty when asked to examine something such as an EM negative, he shifted his glasses down his nose and peered over the lenses. This gave him the air of an inquisitive bird, an impression reinforced by a crisp incisive manner and speech in short and rather jerky phrases.

Within his own laboratory, he was tolerant of people, but intolerant of mistakes, and known to all as someone who loved gadgets. He was a born tinkerer, and electron microscopy with its mystique and its machinery suited his temperament exactly. Whenever his microscope developed a fault, the coat was off, the tools were out and the column stripped. Very few had his level of technical knowledge or were so capable of doing maintenance on their own microscope.

Outside the laboratory, his other great love was golf. At his best, he had a handicap of 2 and he remained competitive well into retirement, confirmed by the trophy boards at Moseley Golf Club being peppered with his name. He won their Seniors' Trophy in 1990 and the Over-70s Cup in 1992.

Tom was a major force in the development of British diagnostic virology at the time when it led the world in routine diagnosis. His working life covered the time when it was all new and exciting, and his contribution to virus diagnosis by electron microscopy cannot be over-emphasized. He showed what could be done by dedication, underpinned by sound technical knowledge, and made it fun.

Tom and his wife June were excellent hosts, providing hospitality to the many scientists who visited his laboratory. She predeceased him, but two daughters survive them.

Alasdair Geddes and Dick Madeley

William Terence Coakley (1940-18 November 2006)

William Terence Coakley Professor Terry Coakley passed away on Saturday, 18th November, after a heroic but uncomplaining fight against cancer. He was coming daily to his laboratory, even through his last illness, and with a courageous smile he was always asking how his staff were progressing with the work.

For more than 41 years he contributed his mathematical expertise and physics background to the many hundreds of student projects in progress, firstly in the Microbiology Department (until 1988) and more recently in The School of Pure and Applied Biology and the Cardiff School of Biosciences. His friendly and gentle approach to scientific and personal problems made him a favourite father-figure: his door was often a first-stop for those staff as well as students in need of guidance or consolation. Throughout his career, Terry related the highest levels of professionalism with committed support for his colleagues.

Terry was brought up in Cork, Ireland. His first degree was in Experimental and Mathematical Physics from the National University of Ireland (1961). His MSc (1963), also at the National University of Ireland, was in Experimental Radiation Physics. He then worked in Manchester, where he was employed in the Medical Physics department working on radiation therapy, radioisotopes, medical and biological effects ultrasound. His entire subsequent career was spent in Cardiff. Due largely to his devoted and meticulous experimental work Cardiff University became a world centre for studies on the biological effects of ultrasound. The new Department of Microbiology, housed in two large laboratories in Newport Road as well as in the Main Building in Cathays Park, presented Terry with a wonderful opportunity to apply his deep understanding of physics to biology. This was the subject of his PhD (1968-1971) under the supervision of Professor David Hughes, the first Head of the Department of Microbiology at Cardiff University. As well as important developments in the diagnostic uses of ultrasound, Terry's Group was devoted to the acoustic control of bubble activity during cavitation. Some of his earlier major innovative contributions are still used in most biological laboratories.

Terry continued his work with a series of distinguished sabbatical visitors: Wes Nyborg and Ernest Neppiras (University of Vermont), Floyd Dunn (University of Illinois), Bob Gould (Middleburg College) and Larry Crum of the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. He then went on to investigate surface waves at membrane interfaces with Dominique Gallez from the laboratory of the Nobel Prize-winning physical chemist, Illya Prigogine. In 1984, completely new uses of ultrasound were devised in Terry's group, whereby particles and cells can be moved to preferred positions in a standing wave field. Novel ultrasonic chambers were custom- designed and constructed in-house for different applications, such as detection of antigens by the agglutination of antibody coated particles, ultrasonic filtration or more recently for the study of cell-cell interactions.

Clearly the potential of these novel manipulative methods in biophysics and cell biology is widespread, and their wider biomedical and industrial development is still at an early stage. Extensive collaborations across the Cardiff School of Biosciences (between Microbiology and Connective Tissues Research Groups) and the University (with Medical Microbiology), European and American Universities, Medical Centres, Hospitals and biomedical companies signifies the world-wide acclaim that Terry's work has achieved.

Terry became Senior Lecturer in Microbiology in 1977, was awarded his DSc from the National University of Ireland in 1981, became a Reader in 1984, and then became Professor in Biophysics at Cardiff in 1986. He was Head of the Department of Microbiology from 1987 to 1988.

He was a dedicated scientist, always passionate about his work and a genuine person to all who knew him. He was a truly warm, kind, thoughtful and family-loving person who spared all his energy and time in helping people as if they were part of his extended family. His deep erudition, meticulous attention to detail and inspirational guidance of his young disciples will ensure that his work will be continued.

David Lloyd, Cardiff University

Sidney Reuben Elsden (13 April 1915-29 April 2006)

Sidney Reuben Elsden Sidney Elsden, who has died at the age of 91, was Head of the Microbiology Department at the University of Sheffield from 1949 to 1965 and Director of the Agricultural Research Council's Food Research Institute from 1965 to 1977. In addition to his experimental contributions to biochemical microbiology, he was responsible for leading the establishment and early development of both these laboratories. Elsden was an original member and then an Honorary Member of the SGM, serving on Council from 1963 to 1967 and as President from 1969 to 1972. In 1967 he was awarded the Marjory Stephenson Memorial Lecture.

Sidney Elsden spent his early years in Cambridge and, after attending the Cambridge & County High School for Boys, entered Fitzwilliam House, where he held a Goldsmiths' Company Exhibition, and graduated in 1936 with a double first in the Natural Sciences Tripos. Following a year of research in the Cambridge Biochemistry Department under Dr Marjory Stephenson, who kindled his lifelong interest in micro-organisms, he was appointed to a lectureship in the Physiology Department of Edinburgh University. In 1941 he gained his PhD from Cambridge University for biochemical work on bacteria and on muscle tissue. His long association with the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) began in 1942 when he joined their Unit of Animal Physiology in Cambridge. Here he devised an innovative method for the separation of short-chain fatty acids on silica gel columns and used it to investigate their microbial production in ruminants.

In 1948 Elsden was appointed Senior Lecturer in the University of Sheffield, heading a biochemistry-based sub-department within the Bacteriology Department, and a 1-year postgraduate course in microbiology was introduced in 1950. At that time, the commercial production of biochemical apparatus was in its infancy, but Elsden's foresight and the skills of the Medical Faculty's workshop placed the department in a strong position to exploit new techniques, such as the Hughes press and other methods for the production of bacterial cell-free extracts, radioactive tracers, continuous culture methods and gas-liquid chromatography.

Elsden's research was many-faceted. He was adept at connecting a fistula to a sheep's rumen and he could thus easily obtain rumen contents with their plethora of micro-organisms. Many of these are fastidious anaerobes and, having been exposed to the methods of C.B. van Niel, Elsden was well equipped to isolate and manipulate such bacteria. One of his isolates was an hitherto unknown, large, Gram-negative, non-sporing, anaerobic coccus which produced C1-C6 fatty acids. This organism was eventually adopted as the type species of a new genus and appropriately named Megasphaera elsdenii.

In 1952, Sheffield University created a separate Department of Microbiology with Elsden as its head and the ARC then appointed him Honorary Director of a Unit for Microbiology which they established within the new Department. The research programme expanded steadily and embraced photosynthetic bacteria, growth yields in relation to ATP generation, bacteriophage and bacteriocins as well as numerous aspects of anaerobes. In 1959, the West Riding of Yorkshire endowed a Chair of Microbiology with Elsden as the first incumbent. The Department's increasing reputation attracted a steady flow of postgraduate students and visiting workers, many of them from overseas countries, including Australia, Norway, Sri Lanka and the USA.

In 1965, Elsden started the second phase of his professional career by accepting the Directorship of the new ARC Food Research Institute to be built in Norwich. His careful planning and excellent rapport with the architects resulted in a spacious and elegant building with a good balance of standardized laboratories and specialized areas for services and large equipment. The layout subsequently proved easy to adapt to meet changes in the research programme and safety regulations. The new institute was intended to bring together several of the ARC's staff from research groups in Sheffield, Cambridge, Aberdeen and Ditton in Kent. To facilitate the integration of these diverse groups, a nucleus of staff from each was built up at a temporary laboratory in Norwich in the years immediately before the new building was occupied in 1968. The Institute was sited close to the newly founded University of East Anglia (UEA) which had a strong biological ethos and a close association developed between the two.

Following the Rothschild Report of 1971-72, the research programme was increasingly subjected to more centralized control, with a large part of the Institute's budget coming from work contracted by MAFF. In 1975 a Director's Advisory Board was set up to improve contact with the food processing industry. Major changes followed, including the introduction of work on nutrition and the transfer of work on poultry meat to the Meat Research Institute at Bristol. These changes were well under way by the time Elsden retired in 1977.

Inevitably, Elsden became increasingly involved in a wide range of committee and advisory work relating to food research and biology, both locally and nationally. Despite these pressures he occasionally managed to spend time working with his assistant on properties of clostridia relating to their classification. After retirement, he continued with his scientific interests for a few years at UEA before reverting to his long-standing hobbies of gardening, fishing and cooking. In 1985, the University of Sheffield recognized his distinction as a microbiologist and as Director of the Food Research Institute by awarding him the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.

Sidney Elsden had a lasting interest in new techniques and was keen to ensure that his staff were well equipped in that respect. His attitude to his colleagues was forthright, but encouraging and sympathetic, particularly with regard to personal problems. Early in his career his own domestic life had been clouded by the sudden death of his first wife, Frances. His second wife, Erica, whom he married in 1948, survives him, together with their twin sons. Despite increasing frailty in his final years Sidney retained a lively and good-humoured outlook until his death shortly after his 91st birthday. He leaves behind a wealth of happy and grateful memories among those who were privileged to work with him.

John L. Peel, Norwixh and Bernard A. Fry, Sheffield

Marler Thomas Parker (27 October 1912-25 February 2006)

Marler Thomas Parker M. T. (Tom) Parker, one of the inspirational figures of post-war medical microbiology in addressing our increasing concerns about staphylococcal and other healthcare-associated infections, died on 25 February 2006, aged 94. His work on Staphylococcus aureus - initially the type 80/81 epidemic strain that caused severe hospital infections in the 1950s and later the increasing antibiotic resistance amongst hospital isolates leading to the MRSA problems of the 21st century - is as relevant to medical practice today as when he led the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) Cross-Infection Reference Laboratory through the 1960s and 1970s.

Tom was born on 27 October 1912 in North Walsham, Norfolk, and obtained his senior schooling at Paston Grammar School (1923-1931). He went on to Downing College, Cambridge, as an exhibitioner, reading Natural Sciences with specialism in Pathology (1931-1934), gaining first-class grades in both parts of the Natural Sciences Tripos. He then completed his medical studies at Charing Cross Hospital, London, qualifying MB, BChir (Cantab.) in 1937, and continuing there as a House Physician. In 1938, he began a Studentship in Pathology at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School and gained the Diploma of Bacteriology (London) with distinction in 1939 from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine under the exacting standards of W. W. C. Topley and G. S. Wilson.

The Second World War interrupted his academic studies. He held strong anti-fascist convictions and he enlisted in the armed forces at the outbreak of war in 1939. Through to 1945, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps as a specialist pathologist, initially in the UK and then in India and Burma with the rank of Major. He made lasting friendships in India with memorable colleagues including James Rhind, Jerry Morris and Reg Passmore. He had graphic stories of his experiences in Lucknow and Calcutta and in his travels when on leave, with sad accounts of the terrible famine and the diseases that he witnessed at first hand. In Assam, his hospital unit supported Field-Marshal Slim's advance and he was especially proud of his laboratory's record in ensuring prompt diagnosis and effective treatment of the many patients who developed the debilitating infections that went with military operations in difficult conditions in a tropical climate. His unit was then shipped to Rangoon, arriving on the day after the Japanese retreat, and he was faced with establishing services in a ransacked infirmary that had even lost its water taps.

Early in 1946, on his return to civilian life, he joined the newly established PHLS under the directorship of G. S. (later Sir Graham) Wilson. Tom's first PHLS job was as Director of the Area Public Health Laboratory at Carmarthen, but in 1948 he moved to Manchester as Consultant Microbiologist and Director of the Regional Public Health Laboratory. There, his knowledge and experience were quickly acknowledged and he was recruited to deliver classes in the Manchester University Dip. Bact. course as a specialist teacher. His research at the time started to focus on S. aureus as a cause of severe hospital infections and in 1956 his thesis on S. aureus earned him a Cambridge Doctorate of Medicine.

In 1961, he was appointed Director of the Cross-Infection Reference Laboratory at the Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale, London, a post he held with distinction until his retirement in 1978. Dr Parker was pivotal in his role as Director in bringing together the staphylococcus and streptococcus reference laboratories working on the qualitative differences in the pathogenic potential of these organisms. Throughout the 57-year history of the PHLS, this laboratory played a crucial role in investigating and understanding healthcare-associated infections, particularly those caused by S. aureus and β-haemolytic streptococci, and helping to devise preventive strategies that remain at the heart of the current Department of Health programme to combat MRSA. Tom had directed the laboratory for over half of its first 30 years. During that time many collaborations were established with colleagues and centres overseas which formed the foundation of the international links that remain to this day.

Tom's unassuming personality, integrity, wide range of expertise, and his friendly and helpful manner endeared him to all his colleagues and his many friends. It was inevitable that his help and influence would be widely sought within the discipline of medical microbiology, particularly with reference to staphylococci, streptococci and aspects of bacterial cross-infection, and he gave his time unstintingly to students, trainees and senior colleagues alike. He served on a host of international committees, and his contributions to WHO Working Groups, and his Short-Term WHO Consultantships in the Sudan, India and Burma (1974, 1976, 1980), all testify to the high regard in which he was held abroad. He had numerous collaborators across the world. His daughter Judith recalls a stream of visitors to the family home at Radlett in the 1960s, including Lewis Wannamaker (Minnesota), Theo Poon-King (Trinidad) and Hugh Dillon (Birmingham, AL, USA), but there were many, many more. He was a Founder Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath 1964), was appointed a Corresponding Member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft f?r Hygiene und Mikrobiologie (1978), and was President of the Hospital Infection Society from 1984 to 1988. In 1983, he was awarded Honorary Membership of the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland in particular recognition of his contribution to the Society's journals for almost 30 years. In turn, Tom's care for members of his staff is epitomized by his support for Winston Maxted, a colleague in his laboratory at Colindale, who was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Leiden in recognition of his work on streptococci.

The day-to-day responsibilities of a hospital laboratory in relation to public health were exemplified by Tom's work in Carmarthen and Manchester, and are reflected in the requirement from the current Chief Medical Officer (England) that all microbiology laboratories should fulfil their public health responsibilities. In addition to aspects of hospital cross-infection that constantly required attention, there were innumerable urgent requests to identify the agents of infectious diseases and to check their antibiotic sensitivities or otherwise to guide treatment options. Tom carried all of these responsibilities with exemplary calmness and real ability.

One of Tom's greatest legacies to medical microbiology was his remarkable service as an editor of, and a significant contributor to, our journals and to Topley and Wilson's authoritative text on the Principles of Bacteriology and Immunity, which latterly became Microbiology and Microbial Infections. He worked tirelessly and with daunting commitment in these roles. For the 8th edition of the textbook in 1990, for which he and Leslie Collier were the two General Editors, he personally checked each of more than 2,600 pages of text produced by 125 authors from around the world. He worked on five editions of this book (our 'professional bible' over the years) from 1964 to 1998. Those of us who knew Tom's standards in relation to his editorial work, with the Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology and subsequently (for nearly 20 years) with the Journal of Medical Microbiology, found him a demanding and impressive colleague. We admired him hugely and it was quite impossible to thank him as he waved away our expressions of gratitude with a rare smile and a slight flourish of his pipe. He was instrumental in setting the standard for scientific rigour and accuracy of expression in the journal. He expected those standards of his colleagues, but was also prepared to spend endless time guiding would-be editors as well as helping innumerable authors (especially those for whom English was not their native language) to re-work their submitted articles into worthy scientific presentations. He created the rehabilitation part of his role as rejection and rehabilitation editor of the Journal of Medical Microbiology as an important teaching commitment and many authors benefited from 'distance learning tutorials' over the re-working of their papers - a hard act to follow.

Tom and his wife Beryl were married in October 1938. Their son David was born in 1940 and their daughter Judith in 1950. Tom's wider interests were reading, gardening, classical music and opera. He was, however, a dedicated family man and always found time, between all of the other activities for hill-walking with the family, for beach days with sandcastles and fossil-hunting, and for picking blackberries or visiting stately homes.

After moving to Beckenham in 1987, he started on yet another garden and took up serious studies of Italian and Philosophy at Birkbeck College, only withdrawing from Philosophy classes when, in his late eighties, he felt that his essays were no longer up to standard. Beryl died in 1996 and, latterly, Tom moved to Sunrise at Frognal House, Sidcup, where he made new friendships and found an alpine garden needing his attention. He had an extended illness with surgery in December 2004, but he returned to independent living in Sunrise with his beloved books, his paintings, his music and his view of the garden that he had made. He died peacefully in Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup. At the funeral, his son, Professor David Parker, talked warmly of his father as a marvellous inspiration and mentor. This is abundantly true for everyone who met Tom or who worked with such a remarkable man.

J. Gerald Collee, Edinburgh, Brian I. Duerden, Department of Health, London, and Androulla Efstratiou, Health Protection Agency, London

Professor J.R. Quayle FRS (18 November 1926-26 February 2006)

Professor J.R. Quayle John Rodney (Rod) Quayle was born and grew up in Mold, North Wales. Following his graduation in Chemistry from University College of North Wales, Bangor in 1946 he did a PhD with Professor E.D. Hughes, FRS in physical organic chemistry. His obvious talents were recognized with a senior research award from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and by Professor A.R. (later Lord) Todd who picked him to study the chemistry of blood pigments in Cambridge where he, unusually, took a second PhD in 1951. It was his research on photosynthesis with Professor Melvin Calvin at Berkeley that ignited his career in microbial C1 metabolism.

It was with Calvin that he published the classic paper on the carboxylation of ribulose bisphosphate to phosphoglycerate in cell extracts of Chlorella in 1954. Since then he had been recognized universally as being the godfather of the subject who had tutored and inspired many of us with his knowledge and insight which was far broader than carbon metabolism. This lasted right up to the late 1980s when his appointment as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bath in 1983 somewhat curtailed his active involvement in the subject, although he did Chair the British National Committee for Microbiology (1985-1990). Nevertheless, it did not diminish his interest and role as being adviser, confidante and unraveller of some of the more complex issues of C1 metabolism. Indeed he was in demand as a plenary speaker long after his move to Bath.

Rod returned from Calvin's lab in 1955 with a brief foray into pyrethrum insecticides at the Tropical Products Institute in London moving swiftly to Sir Hans Krebs' laboratory in 1956 to continue his passion for the metabolism of C1 and C2 compounds when he collaborated with Hans (now Professor Sir) Kornberg and showed that bacterial growth on acetate involved the glyoxylate cycle. He used his experience in photosynthesis from Calvin's lab with labelled compounds to set out evaluating the metabolism of methanol, formate and carbon dioxide in bacteria. His work led to the discovery of the serine pathway and, from studies with methane-oxidizing bacteria, the ribulose monophosphate cycle that paved the way for the discovery of a variety of cycles and pathways in C1-utilizing bacteria and yeasts. He also had a significant role to play in the elucidation of a cyclic pathway of formaldehyde oxidation (the prevailing routes were linear), the dihydroxyacetone pathway of formaldehyde incorporation in yeast and the identification that the oxidation of methane to methanol in methanotrophs proceeded via a monooxygenase using dioxygen rather than water as the source of oxygen in the methanol.

Much of this work was done during his tenure as senior lecturer (1963-1965) and then Professor (1965-1983) at Sheffield University. Rod's pioneering work was recognized by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society and the award of the CIBA Medal and Prize of the Biochemical Society, both in 1978. He served as President of the SGM from 1990 to 1993 and was awarded honorary doctorates from the Universities of Göttingen (1989), Bath (1992) and Sheffield (1992).

But most of all Rod will be remembered by most who knew him as the voice of reason, a serious intellect, generous in his advice and help in bringing a compassionate and sympathetic understanding of anyone's problems, be they be personal or scientific. His valedictory lecture at the 1995 symposium on microbial growth on C1 compounds in San Diego was typical of the man, in which he highlighted all the achievements since the first symposium 22 years earlier in Edinburgh and played scant attention to his own discoveries, even though these had influenced nearly every facet of C1 metabolism for over 30 years. In retirement he kept a strong interest in local area health authority matters and was a member of the Board of the Bath Festivals Trust, the Bristol Exploratory and member of the Council of the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering.

He is survived by his wife Yvonne and children (Susan and Rupert).

Howard Dalton, DEFRA

Professor Carlos Hormaeche (24 December 1940-29 March 2005)

Professor Carlos Hormaeche has died in a microlight aeroplane crash in Uruguay. He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. He was multi-talented and could have pursued several careers, but his calling to research was greatest. He graduated from medical school in Montevideo and developed a strong and active interest in microbiology.

In 1981, I had just finished my second year as an undergraduate at Cambridge when we first met. I turned up to work in his laboratory as a prelude to my final year Part II research project, to discover that he was about to go off on a month's vacation. He outlined the project, told me that I could use the laboratory while he was away and then let me get on with it. That was the way it was in Cambridge in those days: no spoon-feeding! With this and subsequent experiences during my PhD with Carlos he liberated me intellectually and personally, an experience I think many have shared, and for which I will always be grateful.

Carlos was very supportive and kind to his students, but expected respect for the science and absolute engagement in the problem in return. He was a supreme enthusiast and had an amazing and encyclopaedic knowledge of bacterial pathogenesis, being able to quote chapter and verse from the literature and taking it as a personal affront if he could not remember the page numbers from a reference from 20 years ago. This professional pride rubbed off on those around him, and has always inspired me to try to be similarly engaged.

Carlos, his wife Raquel Demarco, and their young son Sebastian, arrived in Cambridge in 1972 where Carlos started a PhD in the laboratory of Professor Robin Coombs. When the military dictatorship took power in Uruguay in 1973, Carlos and Raquel courageously protested at the injustices taking place, and took active roles in human rights organizations. The family thus had to remain in England until the late 1980s when democracy was restored in Uruguay.

After his PhD he continued his research on immunity to Salmonella infections in the Department of Pathology. He became a University Demonstrator and in 1980 was awarded a Lectureship in the same department. In 1994 Carlos became Professor and Head of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Newcastle. He re-organized and re-invigorated this Department leading to it moving from a 2 to a 5* rating in the RAE of 2001.

His science focused on infectious disease and mainly on mechanisms of resistance and immunity to Salmonella infection. His PhD thesis unravelled for the first time the complexities of the natural genetic resistance of mice to Salmonella typhimurium infection, as a model for typhoid fever. He was able to show that the ity gene controlled early proliferation of salmonellae in the reticulo-endothelial system, that resident macrophages were key to this, and that this was a mechanism distinct from acquired resistance and immunity. A key feature of this work was to recognize the need to follow the growth dynamics of the bacteria in vivo, rather than just to rely on death, as a measure of resistance. This lesson has been rather forgotten in recent literature.

I was his first PhD student, and we set out to try to find out more about what T cells and B cells were doing to control Salmonella infection after the initial phase of genetic resistance had passed. This was an intense, highly creative and immensely enjoyable time, with the Department of Pathology under the leadership of Peter Wildy being a fantastic place to work. Carlos branched out into vaccinology when he met Gordon Dougan at Wellcome Biotech, where he eventually spent a sabbatical, ostensibly learning molecular biology but in addition invigorating and inspiring the people in the laboratory there to great things. During this time live attenuated Salmonella vaccine strains started emerging, especially from the laboratory of Bruce Stocker at Stanford, who became a strong colleague and friend. These provided a new way for Carlos to ask questions about the immune response to salmonellae, but also led to his being able to start developing ideas about delivery of antigens to the immune system via these live attenuated carriers. Carlos made major contributions in this area, not just in understanding how the basic biology and immunology of these systems work, but also in generating vaccines with real potential for exploitation. I am sure that these types of multivalent vaccine will be used, especially in the developing world, but first we will have to overcome Luddite tendencies to reject anything that has been genetically manipulated, and a political and industrial system of vaccine development that is incompatible with the successful development of new vaccines for poor countries.

Carlos continued with these scientific themes throughout his career. He took early retirement from Newcastle after his RAE triumph and I was delighted to be able to offer him space in my laboratory at the Cambridge Veterinary School to continue his research. His latest enthusiasm was to use Salmonella vaccine strains to deliver antigens from the worm Echinococcus to dogs to try to break the transmission chain that leads to humans with hydatidosis. This is a continuing collaborative effort between Cambridge and scientists in Lyon, Montevideo, Tunisia and Morocco: typical of the type of multinational collaboration that Carlos was so good at generating and fostering. Carlos and Raquel spent about half the year here in Cambridge and the other half in Uruguay where they had built a new and beautiful house near Montevideo. This was idyllic in many ways, and amongst the benefits it allowed stronger links to be developed between scientists in the UK and Uruguay.

Carlos was very generous with his time, and always gave back to his professional colleagues more than he took. He gave service to the SGM and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Microbiology of the ASM.

Carlos was larger than life. He was the type of man to develop an enthusiasm, go into it until he understood everything about it, then practice it assiduously. Such was his fascination with flying. He owned a microlight plane in England and would always be out flying if the weather was remotely sunny. He was a very careful and thorough pilot, and it is with some incomprehension that I contemplate the fact the he died as a passenger in a microlight being piloted by someone else. An appalling waste of a superb man.

Carlos was a much loved and highly respected man and scientific colleague, and we will all miss him terribly.

Duncan Maskell, University of Cambridge

Ernest Frederick Gale FRS (15 July 1914-7 March 2005)

Ernest Gale, who has died at the age of 90, was Professor of Chemical Microbiology in the University of Cambridge from 1960 to 1981. He made a significant contribution to the Society's activities during its early years. His major contribution to microbiology was in emphasizing the chemical and enzymatic basis of microbial activities, at a time when many cellular components and biochemicals were ill-defined. These ideas were published in 1947 in the ground-breaking book The Chemical Activities of Bacteria.

Ernest Gale spent 50 years in Cambridge, completing a degree in Natural Sciences (Biochemistry) in 1936 and then a PhD in the Department of Biochemistry under the direction of the late Dr Marjory Stephenson, FRS, for studies on the adaptation of sugar-metabolizing enzymes in Escherichia coli and factors that influence the deamination of amino acids. This research led to a rapid and accurate method of estimating free amino acids, which in turn facilitated the study of the movement of amino acids into and out of bacterial cells. Using naturally occurring amino acid auxotrophic strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Gale showed that large intracellular concentrations of amino acids could be accumulated. He was to be one of the first to use radiolabelled amino acids, although his initial approach to Amersham to supply him with ¹⁴C-amino acids was met by resistance and the comment that there would be no general scientific market for such esoteric products!

During the 1950s, Gale worked on the involvement of RNA in the incorporation of amino acids into protein, using an in vitro system from S. aureus. At that time it was not possible to separate the different types of RNA, but he clearly saw that there were separate effects, that a labile form of RNA was involved in enzyme induction and synthesis, and moreover that DNA was responsible for organizing the involvement of RNA in protein synthesis. With hindsight it is possible to distinguish the effects of mRNA and tRNA in the results obtained, but at the time they were part of a lively controversy, which Gale eventually left to the likes of Crick and Monod to resolve.

Instead, Gale turned his attentions to the mode of action of antibiotics, triggered not only by the finding that penicillin altered bacterial permeability to amino acids and inhibited synthesis of the cell wall, but also to an incident during World War II. Gale had received from ICI a small sample of penicillin, but before he could use it for laboratory experiments he received an emotional call from a clinical colleague to help a nurse dying of a staphylococcal infection. Administration of the penicillin produced a dramatic improvement in the nurse's condition, but there was insufficient to continue treatment and she died. This experience had a profound effect on Gale who devoted the rest of his scientific career to the study of antibiotics. A succession of PhD students and academic visitors to his laboratories investigated a wide range of antibiotics, shedding light not only on their modes of action, but also the elucidation of basic aspects of bacterial metabolism. His book The Molecular Basis of Antibiotic Action remains a classic text. Later he turned his attention to antifungal antibiotics, particularly the polyenes and mechanisms of resistance.

The originality of Gale's research and its significance for the development of microbiology was marked by the award of the ScD degree in 1947 and his election as a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1953. In 1948 he became Director of the Medical Research Council Unit for Chemical Microbiology or 'Microbiology Unit' (MBU) within the Department of Biochemistry, and in 1960 the University of Cambridge created a personal Chair of Chemical Microbiology for him. Although he was an efficient administrator, Gale was happiest doing research and even when he was Acting Head of the Biochemistry Department he still set aside a day when he could work uninterruptedly in the laboratory. He held many distinguished lectureships at home and abroad and travelled widely giving lectures in Russia, the USA and Australia. He sat on several national and international committees, including the International Union of Biochemistry Commission on Enzymes from 1957 to 1961.

Ernest Gale was an excellent lecturer and laboratory teacher, his great enthusiasm for his subject being very evident. He was much involved in the radical reorganization of undergraduate teaching at Cambridge in the mid-60s that saw the replacement of older disciplines with the newer concepts of biology of cells. As a PhD supervisor, his aim was to instil an ability in his students to think for themselves: he had an uncanny ability to guide whilst allowing the freedom to explore without undue pressure. Testimony to the success of his approach is found in the large number of his students who have become leaders in academia and industry.

Ernest Gale retired in 1983, moving from Cambridge to live in Salcombe, Devon, where regular family holidays had been spent for many years. In retirement he spent his time walking and swimming, reading thrillers not scientific papers, and developing his considerable skills as a wood carver. The last years of his life were blighted by virtually complete loss of memory, and were spent in London closer to his family. To the end he remained unassuming and dignified, somewhat ironically succumbing to a pneumonia that not even the antibiotics that he had studied for a professional lifetime could cure.

Nick Russell, Imperial College London

Professor June Lascelles (23 January 1924-1 July 2004)

June Lascelles, Professor Emerita of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles, died at her home in Los Angeles, aged 80. June devoted her life to microbial biochemistry and to those she taught and supervised. She had a tremendous and infectious enthusiasm for research on a wide variety of micro-organisms, and she is particularly well known for her work on the purple non-sulfur photosynthetic bacteria. Her pioneering physiological and biochemical studies, which frequently exploited mutants, provided fundamental insights into tetrapyrrole biosynthesis and other metabolic processes, laying down foundations and concepts that are still achieving new relevance in the post-genomic era.

June Lascelles was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. She graduated from the University of Sydney with a First Class BSc degree in Biochemistry in 1944, followed by an MSc in 1947. She was awarded an 1851 Exhibition Fellowship and elected to work in the Microbiology Unit of the Department of Biochemistry in Oxford. Her supervisor was Donald Woods and with him she established that pAB is converted to folic acid, that the conversion rate is tenfold higher in sulfonamide-resistant organisms and that folates are involved in amino acid biosynthesis. After receiving a DPhil in 1952, June stayed in Oxford and was appointed Lecturer in Microbial Biochemistry in 1960.

At this stage she developed new projects in microbial biochemistry, making very significant contributions to our understanding of the general and respiratory metabolism of Staphylococcus aureus, the C- and inorganic S-metabolism of photosynthetic bacteria, and she achieved early distinction for her contribution to microbial porphyrin synthesis. An important motivating factor for these studies was the value then attached to the use of bacteria to inform on the basic metabolites and metabolic reactions of higher organisms. Her tremendous enthusiasm for a wide diversity of micro-organisms was confirmed during an exciting year (1956/7) spent with C.B. van Niel at the Hopkins Marine Station (California) isolating and studying various 'exotics' like Thiovulum, Thiothrix and Cytophaga as well many species of anoxygenic photosynthetics. Her broad approach is reflected in publications addressing fundamental metabolic problems in at least 20 species ranging from Staphylococcus to Tetrahymena, Campylobacter to Physarum, and Paracoccus to purple non-sulfur photosynthetics.

In 1965 June was invited to a Chair in Bacteriology at the University of California, Los Angeles. A major theme of June's research from 1955 to 1980 was the synthesis and regulation of haem and bacteriochlorophyll (Bchl) in Rhododobacter sphaeroides. This classic study established that light and oxygen affect the synthesis of several enzymes used in the biosynthesis of both haem and Bchl, and provided the basis of our current understanding of tetrapyrrole synthesis in photosynthetic bacteria. She was one of the first to select mutants having defects in tetrapyrrole synthesis, and exploit them in identifying individual enzymic steps in the biosynthetic pathways. June's influential scientific reviews and exceptional editorial and reviewing skills were widely valued by scientists, publishers and grant-awarding bodies, worldwide. June retired in 1989 and was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1990. She worked every day until 2 years before her death.

June was modest and self-effacing but forthright, plain-speaking, proud of her Australian heritage, and seriously professional. Her industry and thoroughness are legendary. She was an extremely acute and reliable critic and reporter of both scientific matters and human affairs. She had a very positive attitude to life, a great sense of humour, and a highly developed social conscience. She was no respecter of class, royalty or the Church, and impatient of some of the ancient practices of Oxford college life. Most of all she will be remembered for her great kindness and generosity to young scientists. She was always approachable, prepared to listen, took a genuine interest in their work, and gave wise counsel and encouragement. Her death was announced to Departmental colleagues in words that included, 'She will be missed as an accomplished scholar, dedicated learner, highly respected experimentalist, unique role model and rare friend'.

John R. Guest, University of Sheffield, UK, & Howard Gest, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA

Professor Stanley (Stan) Williams

StanWilliams Emeritus Professor Stan Williams, University of Liverpool, died on Thursday 23rd September 2004. He spent almost his entire academic life at the University and met his wife Kath when they were both undergraduates there. Latterly, Stan was Professor of Botany (1987-1992), Professor of Microbiology (1992-1996) and Head of the Department of Genetics and Microbiology prior to the formation of the School of Biological Sciences, a process to which he gave his support before retiring.

Although Stan spent the great majority of his time in Liverpool, he had a prominent profile as a scientist on the international stage. Stan was a pioneer in the field of actinomycete biology and his research was devoted to the study of actinomycete taxonomy and ecology, which was of particular interest to the pharmaceutical industry for which this group of organisms is such a rich source of antibiotics.

His appointment to the Bergey Trust - the international body that oversees bacterial systematics - and the important work he did on their behalf is testament to his stature, but the final accolade came in 2000 when he had a genus of bacteria named after him:

'Williamsia named to honour a British Microbiologist for his numerous contributions to the taxonomy and ecology of actinomycetes'.

Stan numbered many friends amongst his colleagues right across the University and will be sadly missed.

Fred Brown (31 January 1925-20 February 2004)

Fred Brown Members of the Society will be saddened to learn of the death of Fred Brown, FRS OBE, at the age of 79 on 20 February, 2004. With his passing we lose another of the 'old school' of virologists who have had a major impact on their chosen discipline over the past half century. Fred had a long and influential relationship with the SGM and was elected as an honorary member in 1991. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of General Virology from 1975 to 1980 and was its most prolific single contributor.

Fred hailed from Burnley and was a Lancastrian through and through. After a brilliant career at Burnley Grammar School, of which he was school, cricket and football captain, he studied chemistry at the University of Manchester. Having obtained a first class degree he went on to study carbohydrate chemistry for his doctoral degree. After working for short spells at the Bristol University's Fruit and Vegetable Preservation Station, the Hannah Dairy Research Institute and the Christie Hospital, Fred joined the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Institute (as it was then) at Pirbright in 1955, where he launched a career in virology that spanned almost 50 years. There he established a molec