Professor David Denison, a leading international figure in Respiratory Physiology, has died at the age of 80.

Professor Denison, a prominent academic in the field of Respiratory Physiology, was appointed as a Consultant at the Brompton hospital in 1974.  He brought with him 20 years’ experience from working with Professor John West at Hammersmith and La Jolla, California, and in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force investigating the adaptation of the body of the demands of flying at altitude, diving at depth and submarine escape.   He was appointed as Professor of Clinical Physiology and the Director of the Department of Clinical Physiology at the National Heart and Lung Institute in 1982.

David had a truly original mind with a ceaseless curiosity to understand.  He made many important contributions to understanding human and mammalian physiology.

He took endless care to teach his students to think for themselves, to develop their scientific expertise, to challenge orthodoxy and to communicate their ideas with clarity of thought and expression.  It is a tribute to his abilities that many of those with whom he worked have gone on to have very successful medical careers.

His remarkable abilities were in frequent demand from many quarters:  NASA for his careful experimental work in explaining the Apollo 1 disaster; barristers for his expertise in the hazards of diving and his original and painstaking contribution late in his career to the forensic medical literature on the dispersal of blood drops; the Brompton Hospital for whom he was for several years chairman of the Ethics Committee; the Colt Foundation for whom from 1981 he was the founding scientific adviser, continuing in this role until last year.

David inspired great admiration and affection in all who knew and worked with him.  He was a kind and generous man, always thoughtful of others, who will be greatly missed.