Abstract
Professor Bamford was regarded by many as the greatest British polymer chemist of the twentieth century and when Bam passed away in November 1999 tribute was quite rightly made to his considerable achievements in the field of polymer science. The aim of this paper is to highlight Bam's contribution to biomaterials research that occupied his attention for over 15 years after his official retirement. In particular a review of the synthetic methods employed by Bam for the modification of polymers to improve haemocompatibility and to function as affinity separation membranes for protein purification is presented.