Andrew Wyllie graduated in medicine and science from Aberdeen University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Academy of Medical Science and the Royal College of Pathologists.
His research focussed largely on an internally programmed process of cell death that – with his senior colleagues John Kerr and Alastair Currie – he named apoptosis. This work helped to open a new field of study with wide significance in biology and medicine, including particular relevance to cancer. Wyllie’s papers have been cited more than 20,000 times.
In 2011 he retired from the Chair in Pathology at Cambridge, which he had occupied since 1998. In addition to his research work, he greatly enjoyed contact with students, both undergraduate and postgraduate.
