Correspondence
Professor Sykes, Nuffield professor of anaesthetics in Oxford, knighted in 1991, first talks of his family background, his childhood in Devon and Yorkshire and his medical studies at University College, London (which had moved to Bangor during the Second World War), Magdalene College, Cambridge, and University College Hospital from 1946-49. Professor Sykes then outlines his early career. House physician posts were followed by two years of national service in the RAMC with the British Army of the Rhein in Germany, where he was trained as an anaesthetist in Hamburg. He discusses his time in UCH where he completed his training for the Diploma in Anaesthesia and the Fellowship, and was influenced by figures such as Massey Dawkins, Bob Cope and Bernard Lucas. He describes his year as Rickman Godlee travelling scholar, based at Harry Beecher's department in the Massachusetts General Hospital, as a turning point because it gave him the opportunity to engage in research. Next, Professor Sykes reflects on his career a…
At the start of the interview Dr Nunn, pioneer of respiratory physiology relating to anaesthesia, talks about his family background, his schooldays at Wrekin College and his time as a medical student at Birmingham University. He discusses his three years in Penang, Malaysia with the Colonial Medical Service 1949-1952 where he acquired practical experience of giving anaesthetics. The interview then moves on to Dr Nunn's early career as an anaesthetist, a series of junior posts in Birmingham. There he developed a yearning for research and started a PhD in Birmingham in the field of lung function in anaesthetic and intensive care conditions, moving on to the Royal College of Surgeons as a research fellow where he stayed for seven years. Next the discussion covers the effects of advances in respiratory physiology in the late fifties and early sixties, which undoubtedly aided the dramatic reduction in anaesthetic mortality at that time. Following that, Dr Nunn reflects on his appointments as the first Professor of…
Dame Sheila Sherlock discusses with Sir Gordon Wolstenholme her entry into medicine, undergraduate studies and junior appointments in Edinburgh, and the transfer to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith in 1942, to work with Professor John McMichael on liver biopsy studies that were to widen into career-long interests in liver and biliary disease. Dame Sheila outlines how this career advanced essentially at 'the Hammersmith', with reference to occasional visitorships at other centres of clinical research. The impact of unprecedented wartime epidemics of hepatitis due to yellow fever vaccine and blood transfusion transmission of the disease is then considered, followed by references to studies of a range of liver and biliary conditions in the post-war years, work establishing her reputation in clinical research. Also reviewed is the founding in 1958 of the International Society for the Study of the Liver, its subsequent significance and the contributions made by Dame Sheila to its development. The…
In this interview, Professor Richard Schilling looks back on a career in occupational medicine spanning fifty years. He talks of his upbringing as the son of a general practitioner in Suffolk, and education at Epsom College and St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, London. He describes the experience, immediately after qualifying, of running a rural general practice for six months after his father's unexpected death. The interview then moves to house jobs at St Thomas' and Addenbrookes, Cambridge, followed by his entry into occupational medicine in 1937 with his appointment as assistant industrial medical officer for the ICI metals factory in Birmingham. He speaks of a period, interrupted by wartime service in the RAMC, as an inspector of factories, in Manchester. Professor Schilling then talks of his appointment in 1942, by Sir Edward Mellanby, as secretary of the industrial health research board of the Medical Research Council. He discusses his involvement in setting up new MRC research units, including the S…
In this first of two interviews Sir Rex Richards FRS discusses a West Country background and the early development of scientific interests leading to undergraduate chemistry studies at Oxford 1942-45. There is in this introductory conversation reflection on a natural inclination to practical, bench skills. Discussion then progresses to a first research project in infrared spectroscopy, geared to war interests. There is also reference to encounters with Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin and Norman Heatley through interests in penicillin. More complex studies of molecular structure follow this early research, leading to interests in 'magnetic susceptibility' and the development of magnetic resonance spectroscopy facilities in Oxford. Pioneering steps in this are detailed with special reference to various magnet construction initiatives. In this section Sir Rex provides a simple but valuable explanation of how nuclear magnetic resonance imaging techniques probe the structure of molecules and tissues.