William Hayes (geneticist)

Prof William Hayes FRSFRSE LLD (18 January 1913 – 7 January 1994) was an Irish geneticist.

He was born in Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, the only son of William Hayes, a successful Dublin pharmacist, and his second wife, Miriam, née Harris. Hayes was still a child when his father died, and he lived with his mother and grandmother and was educated at home by a governess, before going to a preparatory school in Dalkey and then in 1927 to St Columba's College at Rathfarnham, where his early interest in science began to develop as a hobby. He read medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, graduated BA in Natural Science in 1936 and qualified in medicine the following year (MB, BCh, University of Dublin).

He completed internships at the Victoria Hospital, Blackpool and Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, Dublin, before becoming an Assistant to his mentor, Professor J W Bigger, in the Department of Bacteriology at Trinity College. Here his work included routine diagnostic bacteriology and serology and studies of phase variation in Salmonella.

During WWII he was a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps serving with the Indian Army Medical Corps. Here he began work on penicillin, wrote a book on penicillin therapy and published some of his work on Salmonella infection in the Army in India, which was the beginning of his active interest in bacterial genetics.

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