William Kermack

William Ogilvy Kermack FRS FRSE FRIC (26 April 1898 – 20 July 1970) was a Scottish biochemist. He made mathematical studies of epidemic spread and established links between environmental factors and specified diseases. He is noteworthy for being blind for the majority of his academic career. Together with Anderson Gray McKendrick he created the Kermack-McKendrick theory of infectious diseases.

Early life and education He was born on 26 April 1898 at 36 South Street in Kirriemuir, the son of William Kermack, a postman, and his wife, Helen Eassie Ogilvy. His mother was placed in an asylum soon after his birth and died when he was six and he was raised by his father's sister Margaret Osler Kermack, wife of David Marnie, a blacksmith. He was raised with their four children - his cousins.

William was educated at Webster's Seminary in Kirriemuir under headmaster Thomas Pullar. He won a bursary and began studying Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen in 1914.

Career His university career was disrupted by the First World War during which he served in the Royal Air Force 1917–1918. He graduated from Aberdeen University late in 1918 and then moved to the Dyson Perrins Laboratory at the University of Oxford in which worked with William Perkin Jr for two years, on the alkaloid harmaline.

St Andrews University awarded him an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1937.

From 1949 to 1968 he served as Professor of Biological Chemistry at Aberdeen University.

Death He died on 20 July 1970 while still working at his desk inside Marischal College in Aberdeen.

Family In 1926 he married Elizabeth Raimunda Blazquez daughter of Raimundo Blazquez of Aguilas in Spain. They had one son, Derek Ogilvy Kermack

Publications Modern Views of Atomic Structure (1935) The Stuff We're Made Of (1948)