Philip Lawley the scientist who, with the help of his fellow researcher Peter Brookes, provided the first convincing evidence that DNA is the key target for chemicals which cause cancer, an insight which laid the foundation for the now universally accepted idea that cancer is a genetic disease, died at the end of last year at the age of 84.
What you possible didn't know about Philip, that he :
* was born in Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, to parents who were teachers and after grammar school, obtained a degree in chemistry at University College, Oxford in 1949 and a doctorate at Nottingham University in 1953.
* was described in his obituary in 'The Gaurdian' as having beneath his shy exterior : 'a piercing intellect, prodigious memory, wry humour, deep scholarship, liberal views and iron-clad integrity'.
* was happiest working at the bench, he wrote concisely and elegantly, in longhand, standing at tables piled with papers, moving from table to table until his manuscript was completed.
* took great pleasure in conversation, jazz, dogs and old trams.
* in 1983, became Professor of Chemical Carcinogenesis at the University of London, retired in 1992 and continued to work for many years in the Institute of Cancer Research's laboratories in Surrey.
* had his achievements honoured along with Brooks in 2003 when the Institute of Cancer Research named a £21million laboratory after them and saw it devoted to research on the genetic nature of cancer and seen here with Princess Anne.
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"Goodbye" Philip, the world is a better place for you having been here and having done the things you did at your bench and over the years.
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