Prof Norman Heatley

Prof Norman Heatley, 92, of Old Marston, Oxford, was Nuffield Research Fellow in pathology for 30 years.

He lectured at Lincoln College, which made him an honorary fellow on his retirement in 1978.

In the same year he was awarded an OBE, but it was not until 1990 that full recognition of his wartime work with penicillin was formally acknowledged, when the university awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Medicine -- the first to be given in its 800-year history.

After graduating from St John's, Cambridge, in 1933, in Natural Sciences, he stayed on to do a PhD and research in biochemistry.

He then came to Oxford University, and it was while investigating antibacterial substances, under Howard Florey, Professor of Pathology, that he began working on the blue-green mould discovered by Alexander Fleming 11 years earlier.

Dr Heatley made early and significant contributions to the project by devising a way of measuring penicillin, then developing a method of extracting it.

He went on to be closely connected with the biggest problem of all, the production of penicillin in large quantities.

All sorts of flasks, tins and bottles were collected for the task, including bedpans borrowed from the Radcliffe Infirmary.

As the demand for the new wonder-drug grew, he accompanied Lord Florey on a visit to the USA to persuade the Americans how the drug could be manufactured on a large scale.

The mission was successful and, by late 1943, mass production of the drug had begun in America.

On his return to Oxford in July 1942, Dr Heatley worked on the British production of penicillin well into 1943.

For the rest of his career he became expert in refining methods and miniaturising them for medical experiments.

He wrote or co-authored more than 60 scientific papers, and an annual lecture in pathology which bears his name was endowed by the university in 1990.

He is survived by his wife, Mercy, their two sons and two daughters.