Obituary ESSAYS IN BIOCHEMISTRY David Alan Walker (1928–2012) VOLUME 48 Epigenetics, Disease his PhD. This first, rather fierce, encounter with corner of the globe, particularly from Germany, Robin fired a lifetime collaboration and friendship Australia and the USA. Visitors flocked to the between these two giants of photosynthesis RHI. Working together with Tom Delieu, who and Behaviour research. He then took up a fellowship with had also moved to Sheffield, he developed the first Robin in an even smaller laboratory in prototype oxygen electrodes. The development Cambridge, working on photophosphorylation and commercialization of equipment became a contemporaneously with Doug Graham, Dan cornerstone of the RHI, alongside systems for the Arnon and Bob Whatley, and with Frederick simultaneous measurement of photosynthesis Members Sanger across the corridor. He was particularly gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence andDownloaded from http://portlandpress.com/biochemist/article-pdf/34/5/57/6360/bio034050057.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 impressed to be asked to give a lecture in the other key parameters, including the leaf disc Botany School by F.F. Blackman. In 1958, he oxygen electrode. Equipment development was save 25% met Charles Whittingham, who offered him something that suited his perfectionist streak. a lectureship at Queen Mary College in the David truly believed that knowledge was a University of London. It was here that he met precious gift to be shared and enjoyed. By his own only £16.46 Tom Delieu, an exceptionally talented technician, admission, lecturing filled David with horror, and he supervised his first PhD student, Geoffrey but paradoxically he revelled in the process of RRP £21.95 Hind. With Whittingham, he started his educating others about photosynthesis. David pioneering work on the importance of chloroplast actively promoted science education through ORDER ONLINE TODAY as an intact organelle and moved with him to all avenues from books and electronic media, http://essays.biochemistry.org Imperial College in the University of London, including C3, C4 with Gerry Edwards, Energy, Professor David Alan Walker died after a where he was appointed a Reader. Plants and Man, amply illustrated by his son’s long illness, on 13 February 2012. He had an He always reflected on this period at Imperial cartoons, and A Leaf in Time, and he even extraordinary and fruitful career in photosynthesis as a ‘Golden Age’, of hard work, scientific devised a scientific quiz printed on pub beer Epigenetic mechanisms provide a series of regulatory that spanned 60 years, starting with his PhD with achievement and enjoyment in a team with his mats, to spur the interest of the ordinary man. principles that define potentially stable and heritable changes Meirion Thomas at the University of Newcastle, colleagues, Carl Baldry, Chris Bucke and Bill He greatly enjoyed the International Training in gene expression without altering the genetic information UK, where he a developed a lifelong fascination Cockburn, during which the isolation of intact Courses on Photosynthesis organized by David that is encoded within DNA. In understanding how epigenetic with the process of carbon fixation in plants. chloroplasts fixing CO2 at rates equivalent to Hall. Strangely, for someone who delighted in regulation defines cell type, it may also define patterns of He was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England those in intact leaves became a reality. Robin Hill technical innovation, he remained exasperated gene expression that correlate with changes in behaviour on 18 August 1928. Leaving school in 1946, he introduced him to the Clark oxygen electrode, by having to use chopsticks continuously for and disease. This volume of Essays in Biochemistry provides entered military service with the Royal Navy as a enabling CO2-dependent oxygen evolution by three weeks during one of those courses in an appraisal of the fundamental principles that facilitate the radar mechanic, leaving him with fond memories intact chloroplasts to be measured directly. In China in 1985. In 2004, he was awarded the epigenetic regulation of chromatin function, with particular and a good grounding in electronics. He returned 1970, Hans Heldt visited Imperial, and they inaugural ISPR Communications Award to attention on the relevance to human disease and behaviour. to education in 1948, talking his bachelor’s degree discussed transport across the chloroplast acknowledge outstanding efforts to communicate in biology at the Kings College, University of envelope membranes whereupon the exciting photosynthesis to the general public and in 2006 Guest Editors: Newcastle, followed by his initial PhD studies. concept of the phosphate translocator was was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by Hans J. Lipps, (Witten, Germany), Jan Postberg (Witten, He then took up a $120-a-month Fulbright formulated. The charms of London in the 1960s the University of Sheffield. Most recently, he was Germany) and Dean A. Jackson (Manchester, UK) Scholarship position with Harry Beevers in were somewhat diminished by a daily four hour actively criticizing some of the extravagant claims Purdue, working on castor beans. Harry’s commute to and from Essex and he snatched the made for algal productivity. Senior Contributors: tiny laboratory was located in the ‘Pierce opportunity of returning to the North of England David loved literature, poetry, singing the Jan Postberg, Hans J. Lipps, Thomas Cremer, Conservatory and Small Animal House’ that by taking up the Chair in Experimental Biology at local carols and activities that enabled him to Dean A. Jackson, Stefan Winter, Wolfgang Fischle, Course tutors can request Inspection lacked air conditioning, a severe impediment the University of Sheffield in 1970. communicate his love of science. As Ulrich Philipp Korber, Peter B. Becker, Geneviève Almouzni, Copies for assessment over a period to work employing Warburg respirometers. He His contribution to photosynthesis was Heber wrote on the day of his death, we had “lost Kazufumi Mochizuki, François Cuzin, Anders H. Lund, of 30 days! Check website for details later wrote that “Harry was the best thing that recognized by his election to the Royal Society in not only a marvellous friend, but also a hero of Nabil Hajji, Eric Gilson, Asli Silahtaroglu, Robert Feil, could happen to an apprentice scientist”. At that 1979, and with funding from the UK Agricultural photosynthesis research”. David leaves behind his Gloria Rudenko, Jane A. Skok, Eran Meshorer, http://essays.biochemistry.org stage, he was isolating intact mitochondria, and Food Research Council, he founded the beloved wife Shirley, his companion for 55 years, J. David Sweatt, Moshe Szyf whose function was more rapid by a couple of Robert Hill Institute (RHI) in 1984, a purpose- his daughter Marney and son Richard, and the orders of magnitude than any isolated previously. built photosynthesis laboratory with greenhouse enduring legacy of a life well lived. ■ Online subscriptions also available Fortified by his experience in Beevers’s space in the university botanic gardens. By creating laboratory, he returned to the UK in 1954 to a stimulating and dynamic research environment, Richard C. Leegood and Christine H. Foyer complete his PhD in dark acidification in CAM international collaborations flourished with plants. Robin Hill was his external examiner for similar-minded researchers from nearly every Reprinted from ASPB News, with permission October 2012 © Biochemical Society 57.