The university, especially the Department of Biological Sciences, was saddened to learn of Professor John Lewis’s death last month.

He enjoyed a long and distinguished career at Royal Holloway, joining us as a Lecturer in 1963 and gaining his University of London Chair in 1992. John was an internationally recognized expert in many mammalian and aquatic parasites and the effects they have on their host species. He was one of the first parasitologists to take such a broad view of the subject, his work ranging from molecular analyses and microscopic imaging – particularly scanning electron microscopy – to the large-scale, ecological impacts of parasitism. John held many visiting professorships at universities around the world, was a founding member of the British Society of Parasitology, and edited the Journal of Helminthology for 22 years.

At Royal Holloway, John was the Head of the Centre for Evolutionary and Environmental Biology and served as Dean of the Faculty of Science in the early 1980s, steering us through a major University of London restructure. He supervised over 40 PhD students, and his work was funded by government research councils, charities and commercial organizations. John was a committed teacher, lecturing to undergraduates long after his retirement in 2003, and his positive, optimistic view of life made him popular with both staff and students. He was always welcoming and supportive to new members of staff and brought cheer to the department in which he worked for so many years. He will be greatly missed.  

Professor James McEvoy
On behalf of Department of Biological Sciences