Richard Southwood

Sir Thomas Richard Edmund Southwood GOM DL FRS (20 June 1931 – 26 October 2005)[1] was a British biologist, professor of zoology and vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford.

Southwood was born in Marlborough Cottage in Northfleet near Gravesend, where his father's family dealt in farm and dairy products.

Having stepped down from that position in 1993, he continued to research, teach and write, and in 2003 published The Story of Life,[6] a book based on the first-year undergraduate lectures he gave at Oxford.

He was chairman of the National Radiological Protection Board from 1985 until 1994, and also chaired the Working Party on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) set up by the British Government in 1988.

Southwood was also a contributing member of the Oxford Round Table, an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of contemporary issues.