25 July, 2005 15:37 GMT
Sir Richard Doll, whose pioneering work on smoking and cancer is credited with saving millions of lives, also will be remembered 'as an inspiration and mentor to generations of scientists.'
Professor Sir Richard Doll, the scientist who first established a link between smoking and lung cancer, died yesterday at the age of 92.
Oxford University said the epidemiologist died at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, after a short illness.
His seminal 1950 study, which he wrote alongside Austin Bradford Hill, showed that smoking was "a cause, and a major cause" of lung cancer.
Saved Millions of Lives
Following their study, Doll and Hill began research which asked doctors about their smoking habits and tracked them over the years to see what they eventually died from.
Early results confirmed smokers were much more likely to die of lung cancer than non-smokers, and the 10-year results showed smoking killed far more people from other diseases than from lung cancer.
Dr. John Hood, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said the study had saved millions of lives.
Mentor to Generations of Scientists
He said: "His pioneering epidemiological work . . . has led to the dramatic reduction in smoking rates in Britain over the past 50 years. This research has saved many millions of lives.
"But Sir Richard will also be remembered as an inspiration and mentor to generations of scientists, a community in which he loved to spend his time long into what for most of us would have been retirement."
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