Richard Doll

Richard Doll

Sir William Richard Shaboe Doll CH OBE FRS (28 October 1912 – 24 July 2005) was a British physiologist who became the foremost epidemiologist of the 20th century, turning the subject into a rigorous science. He was a pioneer in research linking smoking to health problems. With Ernst Wynder, Bradford Hill and Evarts Graham, he was credited with being the first to prove that smoking caused lung cancer and increased the risk of heart disease. German researchers had previously discovered this link in the 1930s, but that work was not widely known until recently. He also did pioneering work on the relationship between radiation and leukemia as well as that between asbestos and lung cancer, and alcohol and breast cancer. On June 28 2012, he was the subject of a series on Radio Four called The New Elizabethans, a programme put on to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, dealing with 60 public figures from her reign.