Robert Michael Pittilo MBE (7 October 1954 – 16 February 2010) was a British biologist and Principal and vice-chancellor of the Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen, Scotland.
[4] He then started work as an electron microscopist at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, before taking up a post as a research assistant at the North East London Polytechnic, completing an Agricultural Research Council-supported PhD on protozoan parasites of poultry in 1981.
[2][4] After completing his doctorate, Pittilo worked as a postdoctoral research assistant at Middlesex Hospital Medical School[4] from 1981 to 1985, before moving to Kingston University (then Kingston Polytechnic).
He began as a lecturer, rising to become a senior lecturer and then reader, being appointed professor of biomedical sciences and head of the department of life sciences in 1992,[2] and foundation dean of the university's shared faculty of health and social care sciences with St George's, University of London, in 1995,[2] taking on additional responsibilities for multiprofessional education in 1996 and taught postgraduate courses in 1999.
[5] [6] He was chairman of the Regulatory Working Groups for Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture at the Department of Health from 2002 to 2003, returning to the position in 2006.