Michael Pugh Thomas, who died in late March 2011, was one of the early initiators of environmental science education and research in British universities and a pioneer in developing the professional status of environmental scientists. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of Liverpool, gaining a PhD in marine biology. His experience with the ecology of insects in aquatic environments led him to work on disease vectors as a World Health Organization consultant in Africa. Like several other pioneers of environmental problems, he found that the link between health and environment raised many broad questions about human ecology and human impact on the ecosystems that dominated the rest of his professional life.
In the 1960s he published a series of significant studies on aquatic biology in Africa and these led to later work, with graduate students on the side effects on fish and other organisms of pesticide use to control disease vectors in Ghana, Uganda and neighbouring countries. Pugh Thomas continued to have a succession of graduate students from tropical regions throughout his long career at Salford University. His most lasting impact at Salford was the establishment of the MSc course in Environmental Resources in 1970. In these endeavours, he had the full support of William Kershaw, the specialist in trypanosomiasis, who had come from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to found the Department of Biology at Salford. Students who followed this programme gained a wide range of skills through demanding field and laboratory practical work. The course is now absorbed into the School of Environmental and Life Sciences.
At Salford in the 1970s Pugh Thomas led a vigorous research programme on the impact of human activities on water bodies, particularly the River Irwell, on whose banks the university stands, and the estuary of the River Dee. Students also studied problems in reservoirs and canals in North West England and North Wales. His contributions to the regeneration of degraded industrial environments were significant and he played a prominent role in national professional organisations. Joining the Institution of Environmental Sciences in 1976 he became a Member of Council and Chairman of the Education Committee, encouraging the development of the teaching of environmental sciences in many universities and colleges. He also was a Member of the Council of the Institute of Biology and of the Editorial Panel of the Landscape Research Group.
Michael Pugh Thomas established a teaching company programme with United Glass, gained support from water authorities for the work on the River Dee, and secured many other specific funds for the research programme. He was a caring person whom students respected, generous in helping others, and a fervent believer that we can all work together to manage our ecosystems in a more sustainable way. He was the type of visionary, wide-thinking environmental scientist that is needed if we are to make progress in managing climate change and protecting our biodiversity. His legacy at Salford, and beyond, remains vibrant and persuasive - he is greatly missed.
© Ian Douglas, 2011