Dear Norman
I first met you in 1970-71 when I was working as an SRC post-doctoral ‘Resettlement Fellow’ at University College London (UCL) in Hugh Davson’s lab, on my return from a post-doctoral year in USA. Hugh said the fellowship sounded like one designed for ex-inmates returning from the penal colonies. Hugh was an enormously influential figure and guru for us all, effectively the founder of UK studies on the barriers of the CNS, the BBB, B-CSF barrier and blood-eye barrier. You may recall that the Davson lab was on one side of a narrow corridor in the old Physiology building. On the other side was a tiny workshop where much of Hugh’s equipment was hand-made by the ingenious and highly-skilled Charlie Purvis, alongside a bigger lab where in vivo experiments could be conducted. You were at that time pioneering studies on the development of the mammalian choroid plexus, by examining CSF of exteriorised sheep foetuses, a demanding operation involving several large men including yourself and Malcolm Segal wrestling an enormous and not very enthusiastic sheep into position for anaesthesia and surgery. I am sure you were too preoccupied to even notice me, but I do remember the scene vividly.
As you know, in those days the scientific and social hub for UK BBB/CSF scientists was the Physiological Society, with monthly meetings rotating around UK universities. Presenting a 15min talk at meetings was a daunting baptism of fire for us new recruits, but we aspired to publish our work in J Physiology, as you did for many of your pioneering papers. After I moved to King’s College London in 1972 I admired your rapid rise through the ranks at UCL, until you moved to Southampton as Head of Department in 1986. It was clear you relished the chance to pursue your passion for sailing as well as science. I very much enjoyed visiting you and Kate during those years – you were enormously welcoming, wonderfully hospitable, you family dinner table a lively meeting place for an appreciative group of scientists and friends. Your move to Tasmania in 1992 seemed entirely in keeping – your love of adventure, the outdoors, the challenges, the home on the waterfront, and greater access to neonatal marsupials for developmental studies. You organised a memorable meeting at Freycinet Lodge in 2001 as a satellite to the Physiological Congress in Christchurch NZ: wonderful surroundings, delightful wine tasting and some excellent science.
I imagine your move to Melbourne in 2002 made it easier for you to continue your innovative and productive research collaborations in Australia and round the world; it was always a pleasure to see you and discuss. Your survey of BBB history at the CVB2014 meeting was a masterpiece – continuing your long tradition of correcting errors and myths. I suppose like us all you had some prejudices and blind spots – you seemed somewhat suspicious of electrical measurements such as TEER, preferring to rely on visible permeability tracers, including many your group introduced. You could sometimes appear crusty and critical; I remember you complaining at one Gordon conference that the BBB field seemed to be stuck in the past. But I think you were deliberately challenging us to adopt new ideas and technologies. Indeed, you have been one of the prime movers in keeping the field lively, and in training gifted young scientists to spread the word and establish groups of their own.
It has been a great pleasure to know you for more than four decades, and I do hope to be able to share in the celebration of your birthday, and your life and work, in Melbourne at CVB 2017.
With very best wishes,
Professor N. Joan Abbott.