Michael Oliver

Died: June 7, 2015.

Professor Michael Oliver, who has died in Italy aged 89, was a pioneering cardiologist and internationally renowned for his research into the relationship between diet, cholesterol and heart disease. He was one of the most eminent cardiovascular researchers of his era and spent much of his career at Edinburgh University where he held the Duke of Edinburgh Chair of Cardiology since 1978.

He also set up, with great foresight, the department of cardiovascular medicine in Edinburgh, which is now recognised as the UK's most prominent and influential clinical research centre in heart disease.

Professor Sir Christopher Edwards (Dean of Medicine at Edinburgh University, 1991 - 95) knew Professor Oliver well and told The Herald: "Michael was a constantly stimulating colleague and a delightful friend over many years. His contribution to cardiology was astonishing.

"He was one of the first researchers to recognise the relationship between cholesterol and coronary heart disease. He had a specific interest in fatty acids and the risk of death during myocardial ischaemia. His lifetime contribution was extraordinary."

Michael Francis Oliver's father won the MC in the First World War. He attended Marlborough College and then read medicine at Edinburgh University.

On qualifying he spent two years as a GP in Leith before being appointed to a junior fellowship in the departments of biochemistry and medicine at Edinburgh University - the institution to which he was to devote his academic life. As early as the 1950s his research was to alter much traditional thinking and he was among the first to suggest that raised cholesterol and coronary heart disease were associated.

Professor Oliver was in the forefront of medical thinking and had an immense influence throughout his profession. At a meeting of the British Association in Glasgow in 1985 he attacked health educators. "What is needed," the professor said in bold terms, "is an improvement in the methods for identifying those at high risk."

He retired from Edinburgh University in 1989 but remained active both writing in learned and medical magazines and speaking at conferences. He continued carrying out research - notably at Glasgow University who named the Michael Oliver Theatre after him. He was awarded a CBE in 1985 and made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1988. He was president of the Royal College of Physicians from 1986 to 89.

For 30 years he maintained a villa near Sienna which he often visited becoming a fervent student of Italy's art and culture and especially well versed in many facets of the Renaissance. In one reference book he listed his interests as "Italy and the Italians".

Professor Oliver, who received many academic awards, remained active and positive and as enthusiastic and committed about all the projects he undertook.

Sir Christopher recalls: "Last year aged 88 Michael published a paper in the American Journal of Cardiology. In March 2014 he wrote to tell me that he had a paper under review in the European Heart Journal. 'This will be my last. I mean this!' Six months later I had an email saying that he was now completely retired after he had had a review accepted by Clinical Science. It is perhaps not surprising that Michael was highly critical of over-medication of the elderly!"

Professor Oliver's first marriage to Margaret Abbey was dissolved and in 1985 he married Helen Daniel. She and a son of his first marriage, predeceased him and he is survived by two sons and a daughter of his first marriage.

Alasdair Steven