Professor Sir Richard Southwood (1931-2005)

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Professor Sir Richard Southwood, the Chairman of the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) from 1985 to 1994 and previously a Board member from 1980. Educated at Imperial College, London, where he also spent his early career, Sir Richard moved to Oxford in 1979 to become Linacre Professor of Zoology and Head of Department, a post he held until 1993. Sir Richard was a Fellow of Merton College and made major contributions to both college and university life. He was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University in 1989, a position he retained until 1993. After he stepped down as Vice-Chancellor he returned to the Zoology Department. He spent five years as Pro Vice-Chancellor before he became Emeritus Professor in 1998.

As Chairman of NRPB, Sir Richard put considerable effort into ensuring that the work of the organisation was seen to be independent and to be of the highest scientific standard. He was instrumental in establishing an Environmental Issues Panel. This was designed to provide a forum within which NRPB staff could discuss with environmentally interested organisations questions connected with radiological protection in relation to exposures to ionising radiation. He also set up and chaired an international conference held in London in 1986 on the Biological Effects of Low-Level Exposure to Ionising Radiation. One of the aims of the meeting was to address concerns about the elevated incidence of childhood leukaemia near certain nuclear establishments in the UK. Conventional radiobiological thinking did not allow for the possibility that discharges from nuclear facilities could account for such a large excess in the incidence of childhood cancers, whereas environmentalists argued that in the absence of any other identifiable agent, radiation was the most obvious explanation. The meeting provided an opportunity for different scientific viewpoints to be expressed and for informed debate. It was during Sir Richard's tenure that NRPB started to become known in the media as the radiation watchdog, a term which showed the success he had achieved in demonstrating the independence of the advice provided by the organisation.

Sir Richard was also involved in many government advisory committees, including the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution in the 1980s when as Chairman he was responsible for a report on Lead in the Environment (1983). He also chaired a working party established by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1988 to advise on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and in the 1980s he chaired a joint UK-Swedish research study to assess the effect of acid emissions from British power stations on Scandinavian rivers.

Dick Southwood was a proactive and much respected Chairman of NRPB and a major player in the development of the organisation.

John W Stather

Last reviewed: 19 December 2008