Olson Lab

Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD United Kingdom

Nobel Laureat William C. Campbell

campbell_postcard

Huge congratulations to long time American Society of Parasitologists member Bill Campbell who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the co-discovery of Ivermectin, the most widely-used drug against nematode (roundworm) parasites, including the etiological agents of river blindness and elephantiasis! Many years ago as a graduate student in parasitology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln I had a chance to hear Bill speak about this discovery made while an employee of Merck Pharmaceuticals in New Jersey.

VincentsWorms2

Bill is also amateur painter and routinely donates his parasite inspired oil paintings to the ASP's annual student travel auction. I successfully bid for his work "Vincent's Worms" shown above and inspired by Van Gogh's famous sunflower painting. A colourised detail of this is used in some of the banner images on this site.