Peter Wildy

Norman Peter Leete Wildy (31 March 1920 – 10 March 1987) was a 20th-century British virologist who was an expert on the herpes simplex virus.

Education and personal life

Wildy was born in Tunbridge Wells in Kent on 31 March 1920, the son of Eric Lawrence Wildy (1890–1973) an electrical engineer, and his wife, Gwendolen Leete (1890–1982). He was educated at Eastbourne College. He studied medicine at the University of Cambridge, graduating MB BChir, and completed his medical training at St Thomas Hospital, London. In 1945, he married Joan Audrey Kenion; they had a son and two daughters.

He was called up and did his National Service as a medical officer with the Kings West African Rifles, serving in Nigeria, India and Egypt. During his brief time at the University of Cambridge, he worked with Sydney Brenner and Bob Horne, a leading electron microscopist, to use negative staining to see details of viral structure for the first time. This led him into viral classification, an important area of his work for the rest of his life. Proposals for viral classification that he made with collaborators became the basis for an international system. He was subsequently the first chair of the International Committee for the Taxonomy of Viruses.

From 1963 to 1975, he was professor of virology and bacteriology at the University of Birmingham, introducing a specialised MSc degree programme in virology.

In 1975, he was appointed to the chair of pathology at the University of Cambridge, remaining there until 1987. During this time, part of his department moved to a site three miles away at Addenbrooke. He also became a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College.

He was president of the Society for General Microbiology from 1978 to 1981,

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, awards an annual Wildy Student scholarship in virology.

Peter Wildy Prize Lecturers This Prize lecture was introduced in 2001 by the Microbiology Society for communication of microbiology in education and to the public. The following have been guest lecturers: Lucy Thorne (2024) Iruka N Okeke (2023) Elisabeth Bik (2021) Laura Bowater (2019) Tansy Hammarton (2018) Wendy Barclay (2016) Simon Park (2015) Stephen Curry (2014) David Bhella (2013) Vincent Racaniello (2012) Anthony C. Hilton (2011) Sue Assinder (2010) Chris Smith (2008) R. E. Sockett (2006) Joanna Verran (2005) Nicholas Thomson (2004) R. A. Killington (2003) Alan J. Cann (2001)