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Top doc dies in freak accident
A WORLD LEADER in the field of immune system diseases and a pioneer of bone marrow operations at Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in Bloomsbury has died after being electrocuted on New Year’s Day.
Professor Roland Levinsky, vice-chancellor at University of Plymouth since 2002, was killed when a broken power cable struck him in the head during a storm as he and his wife walked their dog near their home in Wembury, Devon.
He was 63 and is survived by his wife, Beth, and three grown-up children. Born in the South African city of Bloemfontein, he moved to Britain, aged 16, with his family. In 1968, he qualified in medicine and trained in paediatrics in Birmingham and University College Hospital (UCH), before moving to Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in 1973.
His career grew and in 1985, he was made Hugh Greenwood Professor of Immunology in 1985.
Five years later, he was appointed dean and director of research at the Institute for Child Health in Guilford Street. Former colleagues credit him with transforming it into a world-class research centre by increasing the quality of scientific output and its chances of attracting grants from prestigious funding bodies.
His interests included bone marrow transplantation, the molecular basis of immunodeficiency diseases, gene therapy and stem cell biology, and in 1979 he performed the first bone marrow transplant at Great Ormond Street.
Prof Levinsky became vice-provost for biomedicine and head of the Graduate School at University College London (UCL) in 1999, where he negotiated the funding for the Cancer Research Institute.
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