The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Image: © Sue Adair Taken: 20 Jan 2008

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine was founded on 12 November 1898 by a donation from Sir Alfred Lewis Jones, a Liverpool shipowner (Elder Dempster Line). The donation of £350 per annum for three years created the first school of its kind in the world from which many expeditions were launched to gather information on the horrendous diseases seen by doctors in the colonies. When I worked there, a collection of original specimens in the museum was a grim reminder of the legacy of some of these diseases, many of which still have no cure. Sir Ronald Ross became the first British winner of a Nobel prize for medicine when, in 1902, he was recognised for his discovery that malaria is carried by the mosquito. Today the school is affiliated to the University of Liverpool and sees over 500 students from over 70countries pass through its doors every year, many of which are post-graduate and research fellowships. In October 2005 Bill Gates donated £28million to the school's research and a new building, which will more than double the size of the school, is near completion.

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