Tom Wheldon

died June 4, 2000

TOM WHELDON died on the evening of Sunday, June 4, in Glasgow's Beatson Oncology Centre after a long battle against cancer - the disease whose cure rate Tom strove to improve throughout most of his working life. His wife Liz and his friend and colleague Professor Ann

Barrett were both present at the time of his death. He leaves his devoted wife Liz, his loving

parents Mary and Eddie, and his brother John.

He produced two books and 150 papers almost all of which are in some way concerned with

cancer treatment or research. Tom was well aware that cancer research is a matter of human life and death. He was ever mindful of the need to turn theoretical ideas into real clinical benefits.

As a physicist by first degree, then a radiobiologist and more broadly-based cancer research scientist, his approach to scientific questions was influenced by the analytic outlook of physics, particularly the use of mathematical models as a means of formulating general principles as well as making quantitative predictions.

Like all cancer researchers, his objective was to contribute to the understanding and the treatment of malignant disease in whatever way he could. Throughout his career he interacted with colleagues, both scientists and clinicians, who shared this goal and who brought to the pursuit their own skills and perceptions. Tom regarded this as the ideal setting for cross-fertilisation and serendipity, for the making of inter-disciplinary contributions outside the mainstream of any one individual's usual approach to research - scientific opportunism in the best of senses. He combined the strengths of modern mathematics and computer science with genetics and molecular biology.

Among the fruits of Tom's endeavours were: the first demonstration of the increased susceptibility to radiation-induced cancer of tissues which have mutated versions of the p53 gene; the importance of the loss of the ability of tumour cells to self-destruct in the evolution of radiation resistance; the rational combination of conventional external beam radiotherapy with targeted radiotherapy using radionuclides conjugated to tumour-seeking drugs; the establishment of schemes for the optimal fractionation of radiation treatment; and delineation of the effects of radiation on normal human tissues.

''There was never a bad word said about him,'' may sound like a platitude, but in Tom's case this was true. He was the most modest, amusing, and generous person I have known and he never spoke ill of anyone. He helped others by listening to their troubles without passing judgment, by transporting them, by babysitting for them, or by giving money - cash did not interest Tom. He described the Financial Times as the instruction manual for white-collar criminals.

He was brought up in the South Side and East End of Glasgow. After leaving Eastbank Secondary School in Shettleston he worked in the metallurgy lab of Clydebridge Steelworks, Cambuslang, where he determined the composition of the steel produced in open-hearth furnaces. After obtaining an HNC in metallurgy, he had earned enough to pay for his education at Strathclyde University, where he studied engineering for one year. Then, after realising he had a talent for maths and physics, he swapped engineering for Physics - the subject in which he graduated in 1968. At Glasgow University's Varsity Club, Tom met Liz, who was to become his wife.

While working as a Treatment Planner at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, Tom obtained the degree of PhD in 1973, and then moved to the Cyclotron Unit at Hammersmith Hospital to pursue his research interests. After Professor James Kirk died, Tom took over the Top Grade post in Radiobiology at Belvidere Hospital in Glasgow's East End. At that time, the department consisted of Tom

and two technicians. Today, the research group is composed of 12 members and is situated at the Cancer Research Campaign's Beatson Laboratories at Garscube Estate. In recognition of Tom's research, he was awarded a personal professorship last year and, only last week, the degree of DSc.

Honorary appointments and awards include the following: Founders Prize, Institute of Physical Sciences in Medicine; Rontgen Prize, British Institute of Radiology; Honorary Member, Royal College of Radiologists; Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Clinical Oncology, University of Edinburgh; Science in Print Award, Institute of Physics and National Physical Laboratory; John S Laughlin Visiting Professor, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute, New York; Douglas Lea Memorial Lecturer (Institute of Physical Sciences

in Medicine).

Tom's passions were boxing videos (his only vice) and the Scottish mountains. I shared his enthusiasm for the hills and we spent many days in the rain and Highland mud. Walking the hills of Scotland can be a dull pastime in bad weather but an excursion in the company of Tom was always exciting. On these trips I learned more about global economics, politics, and philosophy than I have grasped from a lifetime of book reading. Somewhere on the West Highland Way a memorial bench is going to be sited for the benefit of weary walkers.

Although the predominant activity of Tom's working life was research, he was also a gifted teacher. While others have employed parables to get their message across - Tom used jokes. He could turn something as dull as instruction in the operation of a cobalt irradiation source into

an enjoyable and sometimes

hilarious experience.

Tom Wheldon had a very strong moral quality. He also had a quality of self-forgetfulness in the

pursuit of truth. Worldly success in the form of material wealth seldom comes to such men but they inspire love and admiration. It was a privilege to have known Tom.

The Department of Radiation Oncology will create a fund to support a scholarship and a memorial conference will be established to celebrate Tom's work and to encourage advancements in radiotherapy research.