William Duncan Grant: A tribute
Posted on October 18, 2024 by Terry McGenity, Shaun Heaphy, Peter Sheldon, Brian Jones
The Microbiology Society was saddened to learn of the death aged 81 of William Duncan Grant, known to all as Bill, who was born on the 28th May 1942 in Edinburgh and died on the 2nd August 2024 in Leicester.
At the University of Edinburgh, he gained a first-class honours degree in Bacteriology in 1964 and a PhD investigating bacterial extracellular polysaccharides in 1968. A Fulbright scholarship allowed him to spend two years in the USA at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin at Madison. He then joined the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester where he initially studied the slime mold Physarum polycephalum.
The Department of Microbiology was established in Leicester in 1974, with Bill and Dorothy Jones as founding members, and Peter Sneath as the founding chair. Bill served as Head of the Department, held a personal chair in Environmental Microbiology, and after retiring in 2008 was an Emeritus Professor.
Bill’s research endeavours were diverse, beginning in 1969 with an investigation into the composition of the bacterial exopolysaccharide, colanic acid, resulting in a paper that, unusually, has seen an acceleration in citations in recent years. He has also worked with engineers to develop a biological method to enhance clarity and potability of water in Malawi, and with space scientists to construct a molecular sensor array for detecting life on other planets.
Bill is most well-known for his studies of extremophilic microorganisms. In particular, he was a pioneer in identifying and studying halophiles, and especially alkaliphilic halophiles that prevail in soda lakes around the world. This interest was initiated in the late 1970s, by Allan Mills of the Department of Geology at Leicester, who brought back water samples from the Rift Valley lakes in East Africa for Bill to examine.
Bill co-organised the EMBO-FEMS Workshop on the Molecular Basis of Haloadaptation in Microorganisms held at Obermarchtal in 1985, a meeting that formed the blueprint for regular symposia on halophilic microbes that continue to the present day.
Over more than 25 years that included many sampling trips to Kenya and later China, Bill established lifelong scientific collaborations and friendships with Koki Horikoshi (RIKEN Institute, Tokyo), Mario De Rosa and Agata Gambacorta (CNR, Naples), Brian Jones (Genencor), Shaun Heaphy and Susan Grant (University of Leicester).
His research into soda lakes and (halo)alkaliphiles ranged from discovering new genera and investigating modes of adaptation, to metagenomic searches for industrially valuable enzymes. The commercial products of his research, enzymes in detergents, are widely used today and may yet find other roles.
Bill also led the way in investigating the deep subsurface, salty biosphere, asking questions about microbial survival over geological time, long before the topic became more mainstream. He led the way with a seminal paper (in the Journal of General Microbiology, the antecedent of Microbiology), showing that haloarchaea could survive inside the fluid inclusions of the mineral halite.
Bill contributed to the description of many new taxa, including with Koki Horikoshi’s team, Haloarcula japonica – an unusual triangular haloarchaeon. Consequently, he was invited to write key chapters for Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. In recognition of his work, his peers have named three species of microorganisms after him, Halarchaeum grantii, Clostridium grantii and Natranaerobius grantii. Rather unusually, his name also defines a new genus, Billgrantia.
Bill contributed to the Microbiology Society (SGM as it was then) by publishing important papers in the society’s journals, acting as associate editor for the journal Microbiology, giving plenary talks at society conferences and providing opportunities for his PhD students to participate and present at the society’s meetings.
Bill was a warm man, who enjoyed teaching. He wrote a widely used undergraduate textbook ‘Environmental Microbiology’, first published in 1981. Generations of students knew him through the annual microbiology field trip and his course in environmental microbiology. He taught undergraduate practical classes until he retired. He was highly regarded by colleagues and students, always advancing their interests when the opportunity arose.
We also remember him as our friend, nights drinking Ruddles beer in the pubs of Leicestershire, duty-free gin in hotel rooms after a day of fieldwork, or sake after his visits to Japan.
In his younger days, Bill was a keen rugby player. During his retirement he enjoyed gardening, exploring Leicester lanes in his vintage MGB-GT, and cooking. He is survived by his wife Susan, his children Alexander and Oliver and grandchild Rupert.
Terry McGenity, Shaun Heaphy, Peter Sheldon, Brian Jones, October 2024