Miles Vaughan Williams

Miles Vaughan Williams (8 August 1918 – 31 August 2016) was a British cardiac pharmacologist and academic. He is best known for the Vaughan Williams classification of antidysrhythmic drugs. From 1955 to 1985, he was a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford, and its Tutor in medicine.

He was born in Bangalore to Stella and Arthur Vaughan Williams. His father, an engineer working on the railways of India, was a cousin of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Schooling was at Wellington college, and university at Wadham College, where he studied philosophy and classics (Greats). He became an ambulance officer during the second world war. Upon his return to Oxford, he switched from Greats to Medicine.

In 1956 he married Marie, with whom he had three children.

He is best known for his work on beta-adrenoceptor antagonists (better known as beta blocker), and for the development of the first widely used classification system for antidysrhythmic drugs, commonly known as the Vaughan Williams classification. This classification system is still widely taught. His work has been recognized through an honorary fellowship of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology and an honorary doctorate from the Sorbonne.

Miles was the first full science fellow of Hertford College, Oxford, appointed in 1955. Apart from teaching, his major contribution to the college included improvements to the fabric of the building, and the design of the Holywell Quadrangle. He used funding from pharmaceutical companies to provide travel funds for medical students at the college.

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