[WCN21;7;374]

Thomas Willis - His Life And Times

Alastair Compston

Alastair Compston is professor emeritus of neurology in the University of Cambridge where his research focused on demyelinating disease. Amongst other awards, this has been recognised by the the World Federation of Neurology Medal for Scientific Achievement in Neurology (2013).

He is elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (2016) and the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999), foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Germany (2008) and the National Academy of Medicine of the USA (2012), and honorary member of the European Academy of Neurology (2015).

As editor of Brain (2003–2013), he promoted the journal as a repository of knowledge set in its historical context.

Since retiring in 2015, his main interest has been in medical history with three books published to date:

• Simples and rarities suitable and honourable to the College (2018),
• an account of the Dorchester library and one of ten books marking the 500th anniversary of the Royal College of Physicians of London (2018);
• Queen Square. A history of the National Hospital and its Institute (2019: with Simon Shorvon); and
• ‘All manner of ingenuity and industry’: a bio-bibliography of Dr Thomas Willis 1621 – 1675 (2021).