J.H. Burn: an appreciation

Abstract

of Pharmacology at Oxford, died in his ninetieth year on July 13th, 1981.Those who worked with Harold Burn will always have their own vivid and very personal memories of him but there are hundreds of others who knew him personally, and thousands who did not, who will never forget this exceptional man. And there are perhaps tens of thousands, including those in future generations who will be influenced by what he was, by what he wrote and what he did. If anyone can be said to have moulded the subject of pharmacology around the world, it is he. He did this through his particular style of research, through the lucidity of his writings but most of all through the school which he founded. Young, impressionable scientists from various disciplines and older, not so impressionable, pharmacologists all came to work with him. They found inspiration in working with him, caught his enthusiasm for pharmacology and then returned to continue their research elsewhere in the world in universities, institutes, in clinical medicine and in industry.

The Quest for Medicines, a Grand Challenge in the Twenty-First Century

“…The development of quantitative bioassay by J.H. Burn (Vane, 1982 ) and the initiation of analytical pharmacology by H.O. Schild (Arunlakshana and Schild, 1959 ) paralleled studies reported above.…”

The evolution of the discipline of pharmacology amid an era of global turbulence: The unique contributions of Otto Krayer (1899–1982)

“…At the time, Burn’s laboratory had a superb reputation as a centre for pharmacological research in the United Kingdom and was the site where the Nobelist John Vane (1927–2004) developed his lifelong interest in pharmacology. 18…”

Proteinases, their receptors and inflammatory signalling: the Oxford South Parks Road connection

“…On entering the Oxford Department of Pharmacology in 1964 as a rather naïve, newly minted Canadian Rhodes Scholar with a background in chemistry, I was only dimly aware of the rich pharmacology‐focused environment I had joined. The department shaped by W D M Paton, continuing in the directions set by his predecessor, J H Burn (Vane, ), accurately reflected Paton's own view of pharmacology in terms of its close relationship with chemistry and its ability to progress ‘from the molecular level to the whole man’ (Paton, ). Fortunately for me, Paton at that time also believed that the discipline was ‘not yet too sophisticated technically, and still young and fresh enough for the simpleminded to contribute’ (Paton, ).…”