My husband, Niall Logan, who died of pulmonary fibrosis aged 70, was an expert on basila genus of rod-shaped bacteria with more than 250 named species that has many uses, including as an industrial enzyme, in food production, making detergents, and in DNA research.
One of his main contributions to the field was to help with the scientific classification (taxonomy) of basilwork that has helped in the development of test systems that can identify the different species.
As a professor at Glasgow Caledonian University he was awarded a personal chair in bacterial systematics and was invited to lecture on the subject around the world. He also conducted research in Antarctica at the Italian base at Terra Nova Bay and worked on the microbiology of geothermal soil around Mount Rittman. In 2020, a newly identified genus, Niallia circulans, was named in his honor by Canadian researchers.
Niall was born in London to William, a sales director for a company that made electronic instruments, and Eileen (née Rogers), a radiographer. He was educated at the City of London Freemen School in Surrey and then Dover College in Kent.
After gaining a first-class degree in microbiology at the University of Surrey, he did a year of postgraduate study at the University of Bristol before accepting a post as a lecturer in microbiology at Glasgow College of Technology, which later Glasgow Polytechnic and then became Glasgow. Caledonian University. He remained there for the rest of his working life as a lecturer and researcher. His book Bacterial Systematics (1994) is a standard undergraduate text on the taxonomy of basil.
We married in 1977 and lived for four decades in a rare survival of a Scottish longhouse in Balmore village, East Dunbartonshire. He spent much of his time outside of work researching the history and construction of the house, and was a member of the Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Groupwhich he later chaired and for which he organized conferences, field trips and working groups. He also joined the board of trustees of the Auchindrain Open Air Museuma preserved Scottish farming township.
Together with his friend Paul Bishop, Niall founded and ran a successful local history group in their parish of Baldernock. Both academics were in great demand as speakers and applied their research skills to great effect in the field of local history studies.
Niall was also an accomplished landscape painter who exhibited and sold his paintings at Resipole Studios art gallery on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, and an avid music lover and reader. He was an enthusiastic hill walker and conquered many Munros Scotlandalways accompanied by one or more of the 11 Cavalier King Charles spaniels he has owned over the years.
He is survived by me, our four children, Flora, Cordelia, Victoria and William, and seven grandchildren.
