Anthony John Harmar (1951–2014)

Professor Gareth Leng remembers Professor Anthony (Tony) Harmar, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology.

Tony Harmar graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA in Biochemistry in 1973, and then a PhD in Pharmacology in 1977. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Friedrich Miescher-Institut in Switzerland, he spent three years as a research assistant at the University of Bristol before moving to Edinburgh as a non-clinical scientist at the MRC Brain Metabolism Unit.

He was made an Honorary Professor at the University in 1995, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1996, but remained with the MRC until 2001, when he joined Edinburgh’s academic staff.

He served as Deputy Head, then Head of the Division of Neuroscience, and then as Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences, stepping down in 2008 to concentrate on his research and focus on his work with the International Union of Pharmacology (IUPHAR).

At IUPHAR he developed a massive online database of pharmacological, chemical, genetic and anatomical information for major drug targets encoded by the human genome - a resource of major international importance for drug discovery.

Tony’s highly influential research contribution, involving more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, has been cited more than 7,000 times.

His work had important implications for our understanding of pain mechanisms and the effects of nerve injury on pain perception, for identifying susceptibility to major depression and for understanding circadian rhythms - the daily rising and ebbing of many physiological functions and behaviours.

Tony died on April 10 2014, leaving his wife, Jillian, and sons William and Thomas.

He was a warm and generous colleague, committed to excellence in research and teaching, and his tireless and selfless work gained him the deep respect, affection and loyalty of his colleagues. He will be sorely missed.

Notes

Professor Gareth Leng is Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences.