Dr Richard Nevill Strange (3 October 1938 – 19 January 2023)

Richard joined the Department of Botany, UCL as a lecturer in 1970 and maintained strong links as an Honorary Professor in GEE after his retirement in 2004. He taught our undergraduates soil microbiology, mycology and plant pathology. His speciality was plant pathology in which he supervised 25 successful PhD students, many of whom came from a wide variety of developing countries (Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ghana, Bangladesh, Egypt) who worked on diseases of crop plants of economic and social importance in their own countries. In 2009 he co-founded the international journal Food Security: the science, sociology and economics of food production and access to food. He was the initial Editor in Chief for 10 years and established the reputation of the journal. Over a long and successful career, he authored over 100 scientific publication and two books, and in 2013 was elected a Fellow of the International Society of Plant Pathology. Richard also had a great love of classical music and was an amateur cellist who enjoyed playing and performing in concerts of orchestral and chamber music, alongside UCL members particularly at the UCL Chamber Music Society. 

He is survived by his wife Lillian and his two children, Alison and Julian.

Strange, R N (1993) Plant Disease Control; Towards Environmentally Acceptable Methods, Chapman and Hall.

 Strange, R N (2003) Introduction to Plant Pathology, Wiley.