A Conversation with Sir Richard Doll

Abstract

Career Synopsis: Sir Richard Doll was born on 28 October 1912 in Hampton, near London. He trained at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School in the University of London, qualifying with MB and BS degrees in 1937. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps Reserve in 1938 and was called up when war broke out, serving in France in 1939-1940 and in the Middle East in 1941-1944. His first epidemiologic post was during 1946-1947 as Research Assistant to the gastroenterologist Dr. Avery Jones. In 1948 he went to work with Austin Bradford Hill at the Medical Research Council's Statistical Research Unit, where he commenced his pioneering work on the effects of tobacco. On Bradford Hill's retirement in 1961, Doll became director of the unit, and he gave Richard Peto his first job in 1967. In 1969 Doll left London to become Regius Professor of Medicine in the University of Oxford, the most senior medical post in the university. He held this position until 1979, when he became the first Warden of Green College, Oxford, and also Director of the Cancer Epidemiology and Clinical Trials Unit of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. In 1983 he retired from administrative work but has continued with research. He is now based in the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit of Oxford University, directed by Sir Richard Peto. Doll is active in many research projects and is currently working on the results of the 50-year follow-up of the British Doctors' Study.