The former Director of the Animal Virus Research Institute at Pirbright, Professor Brian Wilfred John Mahy, BSc, PhD, MA, DSc, has died at the age of 87.
After gaining his PhD in 1963 at the University of Southampton, Brian started his career at the University of London as a research biologist.
From 1965 to 1983, Brian worked in the Department of Pathology at Cambridge University, where he established a strong research programme on influenza and paramyxovirus and became Head of the Division of Virology in 1979.
In 1983, Brian was appointed Director of the Animal Virus Research Institute at Pirbright where he introduced a strong molecular biology programme bringing in experts such as (the late) Tom Barrett, John McCauley and Chris Bostock.
He will be remembered at Pirbright, not only for his strong directorship, but also his direct involvement in research through the “Director’s Group” which he established. During his stay at Pirbright, Brian began a romantic relationship with Penny Cunningham, the Institute’s Librarian, and they were later married.
In 1989, Brian left what had become the Institute for Animal Health to take up the role of Director of the Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, where he remained until 2000.
Brian was a past-President of the International Union of Microbiological Societies, a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
His many awards include the David Henderson Medal (CAMR, UK) and the Charles C. Shepard Science award (CDC).
He authored over 150 peer-reviewed scientific publications and many books. He was the Editor of several international journals, including Emerging Infectious Diseases, Journal of Medical Virology, Reviews in Medical Virology, and served as Editor-in-Chief of Virus Research.