| Ralph Lainson | |
| Birth Date: | 21 February 1927 |
| Birth Place: | Upper Beeding, West Sussex |
| Citizenship: | United Kingdom |
| Workplaces: | Instituto Evandro Chagas |
| Education: | Steyning Grammar School |
| Alma Mater: | London University |
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Ralph Lainson OBE, FRS (21 February 1927 – 5 May 2015) was a British parasitologist who studied leishmaniasis in Brazil. He was the first to publish a record of Chagas disease.
Lainson was born in Upper Beeding, Sussex on 21 February 1927. His father, Charles Harry Lainson was a chemist for Portland Cement and his mother was Annie May née Denyer. He studied at Steyning Grammar School, before enlisting in the army for a short while.[1]
Upon leaving the army, Lainson studied at Brighton Technical College before studying at London University earning a BSc in 1951, a PhD in 1955, and a DSc in 1964. He was a lecturer in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine from 1955 to 1959.[2]
Lainson established the Wellcome Trust Parasitology Unit, in the Instituto Evandro Chagas, Belém, Brazil, in 1965 and directed it until the unit was closed in 1992.[3] Under his direction, the unit focussed on parasitic diseases, especially, leishmaniasis. In 1969, Lainson recorded Chagas' disease for the first time, and in 1979, he proposed a classification system for different leishmania species.[1] He was awarded the Chalmers Medal (1971) and the Manson Medal (1983) by the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.[4] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1982[5] [6] and awarded the OBE in the 1996 Birthday Honours.[1]
Lainson married twice, on 28 September 1957 to Ann Patricia Russell (they had three children together) and then in 1974 to Zeá Constante Lins. Lainson died on 5 May 2015 at the age of 88 at Hospital Beneficente Portuguesa.[7] [1]