Dr. L. J. Spencer, C.B.E., F.R.S.

Professor Robert McNeill Alexander CBE FRS (1934-2016).

Robert McNeill Alexander, known to friends and colleagues as 'Neill', was a zoologist with an engineer's eye for how animals work. He used mathematical models to show how evolution has produced optimal designs. His skill was to choose appropriate models: realistic enough to contain the essence of a problem and yet simple enough to be tractable. He wrote fluently and easily: 23 books, 280 papers...

Norman Henry Ashton, CBE, DSC(Lond), FRCP, FRCS, FRCPath, FRCOphth, FRS, KSTJ (1913-2000).

L ast year began with the loss of a very dear friend and colleague who had been an internationally renowned leader in ophthalmic pathology, Professor Norman H. Ashton of London (England). Of humble origins, young Norman left school at age 16 years to begin working as a laboratory assistant in a West London hospital. Subsequently, the head of the laboratory further encouraged Ashton’s interest i...

An introduction to the Bioscience Birthday Symposium held in honour of Ole Petersen CBE, FRS.

This issue contains five review articles summarizing talks that were presented at a 2-day Physiology and Pathophysiology symposium held in the elegant setting of the National Museum in Cardiff to celebrate the seventieth birthday of Ole Petersen, Chair of the Cardiff School of Biosciences. Ole trained in medicine in Copenhagen and, whilst a student, became fascinated by the physiology of the ex...

Dr J. W. Ballantyne

Dr. J. Tylor Fox

Although Superintendent of Lingfield Colony for 30 years, Dr. Fox was always firm in his belief that colony life was only essential for a minority of patients, and even for them that it should only be regarded as a period for stabilization and drug adjustment. It was one of his greatest satisfactions that the last 10 or 15 years showed such startling changes in drug therapy. He often said that ...