A world-renowned medical entomologist, Robert Charles Muirhead-Thomson was born in Kilmaurs, Scotland on 2 May 1914 , the son of a parish minister. Educated at the Edinburgh Academy and Kelvinside Academy, he graduated from the University of Glasgow with a first-class honours BSc degree in Zoology in 1936 , and went on to obtain his DSc in May 1942 .
Muirhead-Thomson began his career in medical entomology, later broadening his horizons to study the effects of pesticides on macroinvertibrates. He was, for most of his life, funded by various research organisations, beginning with a grant from the Royal Society in 1937 to conduct research on mosquitoes at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He went on to gain experience in mosquito biology all over the world, in Jamaica, Trinidad,and western Africa. He also worked for the World Health Organisation in India, Zimbabwe and at their headquarters in Geneva, from 1957- 1966 .
Muirhead-Thomson was the author of 54 papers (mainly in British entomological journals), and seven books, spanning over six decades. His first publication came in 1937, when he wrote on myiasis in sheep in south-west Scotland, with Alexander John Haddow as senior author. His last publication, in the Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parisitology , was in 1998 , where he argued that xenodiagnosis of malaria cases had many advantages over taking blood films. An enthusiastic photographer, his articles would frequently be accompanied by several of his own photographs.
From the guide to the Papers of Robert Charles Muirhead-Thomson, 1914-2000, medical entomologist, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1944-c1981, (Glasgow University Archive Services)
