43 Facts About Michael Woodruff

Michael Woodruff was born on 3 April 1911 in Mill Hill, London, England, the son of Harold Addison Woodruff and his wife, Margaret Ada Cooper.

Michael Woodruff became an officer in the Australian Army Veterinary Corps and was sent to Egypt.

Michael Woodruff won a government scholarship to the University of Melbourne and Queen's College, a university residential college.

Michael Woodruff studied electrical engineering and mathematics, receiving some instruction from the influential physicist Harrie Massey, then a tutor.

Michael Woodruff decided to take up medical studies at the end of his third year of undergraduate study, but his parents wanted him to finish his degree first.

Michael Woodruff completed two years of the maths program with first-class honours.

Michael Woodruff finished the program in 1937 and received an MBBS with honours as well as two prizes in surgery.

At the outbreak of World War II, Michael Woodruff joined the Australian Army Medical Corps.

Michael Woodruff stayed in Melbourne until he finished his Master of Surgery Degree in 1941.

Michael Woodruff devised a method for extracting important nutrients from grass, soya beans, rice polishings, and agricultural wastes using old machinery that he found at the camp.

Michael Woodruff later published an account of his methods through the Medical Research Council titled "Deficiency Diseases in Japanese Prison Camps".

Michael Woodruff remained a POW for three and a half years and later during this period he was sent to outlying POW camps to treat his comrades.

In January 1946, Michael Woodruff participated in an Australian Student Christian Movement meeting, where he met Hazel Ashby, a science graduate from Adelaide.

Michael Woodruff made a great impression on Woodruff, and he married her half a year later.

Michael Woodruff took his new wife over with no guarantee of employment, and declined a two-year travelling fellowship to Oxford University offered by the Australian Red Cross because it required him to return home and work.

Michael Woodruff was particularly interested in thyroid allografts to the anterior chamber of the eye because they did not appear to meet with rejection.

In 1948, shortly after applying for the position in Melbourne, Michael Woodruff moved from Sheffield to the University of Aberdeen where he was given a post as a senior lecturer, having not known where the Scottish city was beforehand.

At Aberdeen, Michael Woodruff was given better laboratory access under Professor Bill Wilson, and was awarded a grant that allowed his wife to be paid for her services.

Michael Woodruff took advantage of this access and his wife's skills as a lab assistant to investigate in utero grafts.

Michael Woodruff commenced work on antilymphocyte serum for immunosuppression, with little initial success.

In 1951 Michael Woodruff was awarded a Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England for his lecture The transplantation of homologous tissue and its surgical application.

In 1953, Michael Woodruff moved to Dunedin in New Zealand to become Professor of Surgery at the University of Otago.

Michael Woodruff had earlier failed in his applications for the corresponding position at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London and St Andrews University in Scotland.

Michael Woodruff worked on the phenomenon known as runt disease.

In 1957, Michael Woodruff was appointed to the Chair of Surgical Science at the University of Edinburgh without requiring an interview.

Michael Woodruff was allowed to appoint two assistant researchers who went on to become prominent in their own right, Donald Michie and James Howard.

Michael Woodruff performed the first ever kidney transplant in the UK, at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Michael Woodruff had been waiting for the right patient for some time, hoping to find a patient with an identical twin to act as the donor, as this would significantly reduce the risk of rejection.

The patient that Michael Woodruff eventually found was a 49-year-old man suffering from severely impaired kidney function who received one of his twin brother's kidneys on 30 October 1960.

Michael Woodruff thought that he had to be vigilant with his first kidney transplant, as he regarded the British medical community's attitude to be conservative towards transplantation.

Also in 1960, Michael Woodruff published The Transplantation of Tissues and Organs, a comprehensive survey of transplant biology and one of seven books he wrote.

Michael Woodruff was awarded the 1969 Lister Medal for his contributions to surgical science.

Michael Woodruff was deeply shaken by the loss and the unit was closed for a period while an investigation was carried out to develop a contingency plan to avoid such a disaster in future.

Michael Woodruff retired from the University of Edinburgh in 1976, his role then being filled by Prof Geoffrey Duncan Chisholm, and joined the MRC Clinical and Population Cytogenetics Unit.

Michael Woodruff spent the next ten years there, engaged in cancer research with an emphasis on tumour immunology using Corynebacterium parvum.

Michael Woodruff established a large, efficient transplant unit in Edinburgh that remains one of the world's best.

The next year, 1969, Michael Woodruff was knighted by the Queen, a rare accomplishment for a surgeon.

Michael Woodruff held office in several scientific organisations, serving as Vice-President of the Royal Society and President of The Transplantation Society.

Finally, Michael Woodruff served for many years as a WHO advisor and as a visiting professor at a number of universities.

Nevertheless, Morris said that Michael Woodruff has "a great turn of phrase and a rather wicked sense of humour".

Michael Woodruff's impact is apparent in his large volume of publications.

Michael Woodruff owned a boat and was known to go sailing on it in the Mediterranean each summer with his wife.

Michael Woodruff periodically attempted to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, but failed.