Michael Way

Michael Way, who died on January 18 aged 88, battled all his life against insect pests, but also sought to refine biological warfare methods of pest eradication to ensure that they caused as little damage as possible to the environment.

Professor Michael Way 

Michael Way was born on May 5 1922, the son of a Customs and Excise officer, and educated at Taunton School and Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating with Firsts in Natural Science and Zoology in 1941.

After working as a research assistant for the entomologist Sir Vincent Wigglesworth, in 1943 he joined Rothamsted Experimental Station, where he studied DDT and other new insecticides, seeking ways to make them more selective.

Seconded to Zanzibar to work on cloves in 1950, he was soon studying damage caused by coreid bugs, which were reducing coconut yields, and the ant Oecophylla longinoda. This provided the basis of practical biological control of key pests of coconuts. In a subsequent taxonomic study of the coreid bugs, Eric Brown named the coconut pest Pseudotheraptus wayi in Way's honour.

Returning to Rothamsted in 1957, Way recognised the need to forecast when insecticides should be applied to avoid expensive and environmentally damaging calendar-based applications. At Imperial College – where he was appointed Professor of Applied Zoology in 1969 – he studied (with Mike Cammell) the relationship between the size of black bean aphid populations overwintering on spindle trees to subsequent crop loss in field beans. This led to the first implementation of a forecasting programme for the aphid in Britain in 1977.

In 1979 Way was appointed director of Imperial College's renowned field station, Silwood Park, near Ascot, and was closely involved in its redevelopment, which included a Science Park aimed at encouraging companies to collaborate with Imperial College scientists. He also persuaded the Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control (CIBC) to relocate its British staff and headquarters to Silwood, thus forging closer links with applied ecological research programmes in the tropics.

Under his leadership, Silwood Park strengthened its status as the world's leading training centre for entomologists from the developing world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. Way's own overseas interests continued with consultancy visits to Africa on cotton and coconut research; a sabbatical at Berkeley, University of California; and with membership of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) panel of experts on pest management. He helped to develop the FAO's draft Code of Conduct for the Import and Release of Exotic Biological Control Agents.
Way was elected a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society in 1953 and served as its vice-president in 1961-62. He was vice-president of the West Palaearctic regional section of the International Organisation for Biological Control of Noxious Animal and Plants (IOBC) from 1974 to 1981 and president from 1981 to 1985. He was also president of the Association of Applied Biologists in 1984 and consultant director of the CIBC from 1981 to 1985.
From 1978 to 1981 he edited the Journal of Applied Ecology, and he served on the editorial board of Ecological Research.
On retirement in 1985 Way was appointed emeritus professor and senior research fellow and continued to supervise PhD students and do research, particularly on ants. This included collaboration with Maria Rosa Paiva in Portugal, where he worked, again with Mike Cammell, on various aspects of the introduced Argentine ant, Linepithema (Iridomyrmex) humile; several native ant species; and the eucalyptus borer, Phoracantha semipunctata.
Over a five-year period he spent three months annually at the International Rice Research Institute, based in the Philippines, working with KL Heong, carrying out pioneering research on the role of ants in the rice ecosystem.
Michael Way, who enjoyed tennis and hockey, rowed at university and later became a keen alpinist, is survived by his wife, Isobel, whom he met while at Rothamsted, and by a son and daughter.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/8427667/Michael-Way.html