My former colleague David Ware, who has died aged 80, was a university and college lecturer and biological sciences researcher.
Born in Brighton, East Sussex, to Henry, a chief petty officer in the Royal Navy, and Florence (nee May), a nurse, he attended Varndean grammar school. At the age of 18 David was called up for national service, training as a radar operator in Cyprus. There followed a three-year spell in the merchant navy before he married Rosemary Sullivan, an administrator at a drug rehabilitation centre, in 1963.
That year saw the start of his scientific career: he began as a laboratory assistant at Beechams in Worthing while studying part-time for a higher national certificate. Having obtained his HNC he moved to Sussex University in 1965, initially as a research assistant working on a study into the fungal synthesis of antibiotics. Simultaneously he studied part-time for an MIBiol, which is equivalent to a degree, and having gained that qualification continued at Sussex as a postgraduate research student, where he obtained his PhD and undertook research in Prof John Postgate’s nitrogen fixation unit.
He published several research papers on nitrogen fixation, which led to the offer of a research post at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. However, with a second son on the way he instead accepted a research fellowship at Reading University, where he investigated pathogenic bacteria affecting cattle, while also teaching undergraduates and serving as a part-time tutor for the Open University.
In 1974 he became a lecturer at North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot), where I was head of the School of Cell and Molecular Biology. David eventually became deputy head of school. At Nescot he helped to design part-time undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for technicians in the biological industries, and supervised several postgraduate research students.
After retiring from his full-time post in 1998, David continued with part-time teaching and consultancy and also became secretary of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex branch of the Royal Society of Biology, later being honoured with a president’s medal for his contribution to the work of the society.
Rosemary died in 2014. He is survived by their two sons, Simon and Jonathan, and three grandchildren, Anna-Mae, Jasmin and Joseph.
