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Obituary by David Blow
David Chilton Phillips contributed to scientific development at many levels. He was a physicist with engineering insight, and his first prominent work was as an instrument designer and operator. Later, his research revealed the first molecular mechanism for enzyme action, and he was the prime mover in a reorganization that equipped Oxford University as a leading force in modern biology. His legendary committee skills were exploited with devastating effect as chairman of the Advisory Board for the Research Councils, and he had the task of implementing William Waldegrave's reforms to the structure of the research councils. In the House of Lords he chaired the select committee on science and technology, and he is credited with getting parliament onto the World Wide Web.
David Phillips, the son of a tailor and Methodist local preacher, was born in Ellesmere, a small town in north Shropshire. He was educated at Oswestry Grammar School and Cardiff University, although his degree in "physics, engineering and electrical communications" was interrupted for three years by service in the navy as a radar officer. He took a PhD in Cardiff and then worked on crystallography in Ottawa.
When Sir Lawrence Bragg became director of the Royal Institution in 1956 he created a research group to study the crystallography of biological materials. Among his first recruits were Phillips and Uli Arndt, who set up equipment for macromolecular crystallography, including a three-circle diffractometer. John Kendrew, embarking on the almost unthinkable task of measuring some 10 000 orders of diffraction from each of nine isomorphous crystals of myoglobin, used this equipment. But diffractometer settings were made by hand, and their computation was often delayed by breakdowns of the valve-driven computers.
To get around this problem Phillips and Arndt devised an analogue instrument to provide the settings, and so convenient was their design that they were able to build it round a diffractometer. Stepping automatically along the lines of the reciprocal lattice, this oriented crystal and counter precisely, so measuring each order of diffraction. The linear diffractometer was brought into service in time to complete the intensity measurements for Kendrew's 1959 ground-breaking determination of protein structure at atomic resolution.
Phillips went on to lead his group in the structural analysis of the enzyme lysozyme, which breaks down the sugar linkages in cell walls of certain bacteria. The ability of enzymes to efficiently catalyse a particular step in a chemical reaction seemed at that time almost magical. But using his linear diffractometer, Phillips was able to reveal this magic as a subtle chemical mechanism. In 1965 he unveiled, for the first time, the structure of an enzyme. He showed how a polysaccharide could bind into a cleft on the lysozyme surface where a linking bond would be electrically polarized by charges on the enzyme.
In 1968 Phillips moved to Oxford, where his powerful negotiating skills came into their own. He recognized that modern biology could only advance in Oxford by bringing together elements from several departments. He achieved this collaboration through research council support for the Oxford enzyme group. Later he brought his molecular biophysics group closer to the other departments by moving it into the new Rex Richards building.
After a period as biological secretary at the Royal Society, Phillips became chairman of the Advisory Board for the Research Councils in 1983. His duty was to represent the scientific research community to government. Because of Margaret Thatcher's economic rationalizations the exponential growth of scientific research that had existed since 1945 finally ended, and universities were under heavy financial pressure to improve efficiency. Phillips argued successfully that since the nation's financial well being depended crucially on science and technology, modest growth of the science budget must continue. But he also had to face the other way and force universities and research councils to use available resources to greater effect.
He proposed to direct research support to "research-active" universities, while other universities concentrated on teaching. I remember him putting this idea to me before it was widely circulated, and the instant revulsion and opposition that I expressed. The suggestion was widely opposed and finally withdrawn, but probably few had pondered the issue as long and hard as Phillips. Instead, he instituted another system that produced the same effect by a more subtle and gradual means.
However, Phillips' stern demands for efficient use of research resources were equalled by the strong face he showed towards government. In committee Phillips was a master of timing, and he would often allow others to have their say before destroying them with a few pithy but unanswerable comments. Tam Dalyell MP says politicians "found him formidable" and quotes a minister as saying: "I read my brief three times before Phillips enters my office, and my normally placid civil servants are on tenterhooks." David once confided to me that what really annoyed him at such meetings was the thought that everyone else in the room was earning more than twice as much as an Oxford professor.
Phillips was created a life peer in 1994. He was appointed to the select committee on science and technology, and became its chairman in 1997, his health already beginning to fail. When he resigned as chairman late in 1998 Lord Flowers wrote to him congratulating him for presiding over "the most active session in the committee's history". Under Phillips' chair, the committee produced nine reports, one of which, said Flowers, "proved too visionary for the government of the day, but at Phillip's insistence broke new ground by being published on the Internet". Flowers went on to say that this precipitated the creation of the home pages for the Lords and Commons, and thereby contributed significantly to the way parliamentary business will be conducted and reported in the future.
Lord Phillips died of cancer on 23 February. He was devoted to his family
and listed "talking to children" as one of his interests. He leaves his wife
Diana, his daughter Sarah, and two grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at St Margaret's Church, Westminster, at noon on Wednesday 23 June. Tickets must be obtained in advance from the Assistant Receiver General (Protocol), Room 29, The Chapter Office, 20 Deans Yard, London SW1P 3PA
David Blow is in the physics department at Imperial College in London,UK
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Copyright Institute of Physics Publishing 1999
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