William Ogilvy Kermack

William Ogilvy Kermack FRS FRSE FRIC (1898-1970) was a Scottish biochemist. He made mathematical studies of epidemic spread and established links between environmental factors and specified diseases. He is noteworthy for being blind for the majority of his academic career.

He was born on 26 April 1898 in Kirriemuir, the son of William Kermack, a postman, and his wife, Helen Ogilvy. His mother died when he was six and he was raised by his father's sister. He was educated at Webster's Seminary in Kirriemuir under Thomas Pullar. He began studying Science at Aberdeen University in 1914.

His university career was disrupted by the First World War during which he served in the Royal Air Force 1917/1918. He graduated from Aberdeen University late in 1918. From 1919 to 1921 he worked on ressearch at the British Dyestuffs Corporation in Oxford. In 1921 he moved to Edinburgh to work as a Chemist for the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He continued postgraduate studies, gaining a DSc in 1925.

He was blinded by a chemical explosion in his laboratory in June 1924 and never regained his sight.

In 1925 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Hector Munro Macdonald, George Barger, Sir James Walker, John Gray McKendrick and Anderson Gray McKendrick. He won the Society's Makdougall-Brisbane Prize for the period 1926 to 1928. In 1944 he was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

St Andrews University awarded him an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1937.

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