Secretariat

Professor B E C Nordin, AO, MD, PhD, DSc, FRCP

We are sorry to let members know of the death, on 27 October 2014 and at the age of 94, of Professor B E C (Chris) Nordin, former Director of the Medical Research Council Mineral Metabolism Research Unit and Professor of Mineral Metabolism.

Christopher Nordin read Medicine at the University of London, graduating in 1950.  He held a number of appointments at Hammersmith Hospital, where his lifelong interest in the link between calcium and bone density had its inception.  He moved to a lectureship in the Department of Medicine at the University of Glasgow, later being promoted to Senior Lecturer.  He came to Leeds in 1964, to take up appointment as Director of the MRC Mineral Metabolism Research Unit.  Originally established by the MRC in 1965 as the Research Unit for Metabolism Disturbances in Surgery, the title of the Unit was changed by the MRC to reflect the altered emphasis of the Unit’s work in line with Dr Nordin’s academic interests.

As Director of the Mineral Metabolism Research Unit, Christopher Nordin earned an international reputation for his research into calcium metabolism, osteoporosis and renal stone disease.  Possessed of a very lively and energetic mind and endowed with the capacity to stimulate and enthuse others, he built the Unit into a thriving centre.  Initially accorded Honorary Senior Lecturer status, Professor Nordin was made Reader in 1965 and was awarded a personal Chair in 1970.

In 1981, when he could reasonably have been contemplating easeful retirement, Professor Nordin chose to resign from his post at Leeds in order to move to a senior research appointment in Adelaide.  There followed more than three decades of productive research and scholarship in Australia, where he enjoyed fruitful associations with the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the University of Adelaide and the city’s Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science.  Professor Nordin was especially well-known for his work on the relationship between calcium deficiency and osteoporosis, and was the author of WHO/FAO Dietary Calcium Recommendations.  In 1998, he received the Frederic C Bartter Award of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research and in 2007 was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his services to medical research.

Professor Nordin is survived by his second wife, Mary.

The funeral service will be held in Australia on Thursday 6 November, on which day the flag on the Parkinson Building will be flown at half-mast.