The Institute has received notification recently of the death on 17 January of Professor David Rogers, aged 78.
The Institute has received notification recently of the death on 17 January of Professor David Rogers, aged 78.
David commenced laboratory work as an MLSO in 1957, at the Central Public Health Laboratory Colindale, principally in the Standards Laboratory for Serological Reagents, where in 1962 he achieved Institute Associateship in Bacteriology. His career then took him to North Devon, where between 1963 and 1970 David occupied Senior I (Microbiology and Serology), Senior II (Blood Serology and Transfusion) and Chief MLSO (laboratory manager) posts.
During his time in Devon, in 1965, David achieved Institute Fellowship after success in the Final Examination in Haematology.
A change in career beckoned in 1970 when David moved to Portsmouth to take up a position as Lecturer II in the School of Pharmacy at Portsmouth Polytechnic. Senior Lecturer (1975) and Principal Lecturer (1985) posts followed over the subsequent two decades, after which, in 1990, he was appointed Reader in Biomedical Science. Two years later, when Portsmouth Polytechnic was granted university status, David was awarded a personal chair. The significance of this cannot be underestimated as David was the first member of the Institute to achieve such a prestigious full-time position in a UK college.
A pioneering and hugely influential figure in the development of biomedical sciences education and research, David, along with his colleague Ray Jones, developed at Portsmouth the first degree programme in Biomedical Sciences in the UK. He was also a member of the assessment panel for biomedical sciences and other subjects allied to medicine in two successive Research Assessment Exercises.
David was a major figure in the Heads of University Centres of Biomedical Sciences, which represents the interests of member institutions at a national and international level. He served as its third President (1997–2000) and later took on the role of Hon Executive Secretary in the mid-2000s. Subsequently, he was elected President Emeritus by acclamation.
He chaired the Quality Assurance Agency’s Benchmark Statement for Biomedical Sciences and was a source of wise counsel for the Institute on education matters, and also served as Chief Examiner in Immunology.
David was Deputy Editor of Medical Laboratory Sciences (subsequently the British Journal of Biomedical Science), and took over as Editor-in-Chief on the death of Dr AD Farr. David passed the editorial mantle on to Brian Nation at the end of 1997, having been appointed Dean of Science at Portsmouth. While David’s curriculum vitae fails to conform to popular belief that a single side of A4 paper is adequate, its numerous pages are required to reflect the achievements of a laboratory and academic career that focused on nurturing the talents of those who have gone on to make the biomedical science profession and service a part of healthcare of which to be proud. The one omission from his CV is David’s love of, and talent for, playing the double bass.
David was an esteemed colleague hugely respected and admired by his peers across the entire biomedical sciences community. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, son, Adam, and daughters, Sara and Samantha, to whom we offer sincere condolences.