Oliver Gillie

rdf:langString Oliver Gillie

rdf:langString Oliver Gillie

rdf:langString Oliver Gillie

rdf:langString Northumberland, England, U.K.

rdf:langString Growth and genetic control of enzyme level in Neurospora.

rdf:langString British

rdf:langString Oliver J. Gillie (31 October 1937 – 15 May 2021) was a British journalist and scientist. He previously served as the medical correspondent for The Sunday Times, and later than medical editor for The Independent. He held a BSc and PhD in genetics, both from Edinburgh University, where he studied at the Institute of Animal Genetics under Conrad H. Waddington. His PhD thesis was "Growth and genetic control of enzyme level in Neurospora". Among his more notable journalistic work was being the first to publicly accuse Cyril Burt of scientific fraud. In 1976, Gillie published an article claiming that Burt had fabricated much of the data he had included in his publications, as well as two women whom Burt claimed had been his research assistants, but whom Gillie concluded had never existed. He reached this conclusion after investigating to find evidence that either woman (Margaret Howard and Jane Conway) had ever existed, talking to people who had known Burt for many years. He had also talked to human intelligence researchers who told him that Burt's data was suspect. He has also researched the adverse health effects of vitamin D deficiency, specifically, that caused by insufficient exposure to sunlight. In 2014, he was awarded the Medical Journalists' Association Lifetime Achievement Award for his work to raise awareness of the importance of vitamin D.