Abstract
PROF. R. M. GORDON, professor of tropical diseases of Africa in the University of Liverpool, has been awarded the Chalmers Medal of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, which is given annually for research of outstanding merit in tropical medicine or hygiene. It is one of the conditions of the award that the recipient should be less than forty-five years of age. Prof. Gordon's first experience of medical research in the tropics was in Brazil, where he worked for several years on the Amazon, in the laboratory at Manaos directed by the late Dr. Wolferstan Thomas. After this, he was transferred to the staff of the Sir Alfred Jones research laboratory in Sierra Leone, West Africa, where he has since remained. In 1929 he became director of that laboratory, and in 1930 the University of Liverpool elected him to the chair of tropical diseases of Africa. Prof. Gordon has not been in the fortunate position of being able to select a subject and settle down for a long period of years of quiet research, in a specially equipped laboratory, aided by well-trained laboratory assistants, and free from administrative and financial worries. On the contrary, he has at all times had to carry out many routine duties and has had distracting difficulties and responsibilities with which to contend. When it is remembered also that the whole of his research has been conducted in the trying climate of the worst parts of the tropics, it is a great testimony to his initiative and perseverance that he has succeeded in maintaining a standard of work which compares so well with that of colleagues working in much more favourable circumstances.
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Prof. R. M. Gordon. Nature 140, 98 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140098c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140098c0