Michael Thomas Gillies (15 September 1920 - 10 December 1999)
was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 medical entomologist. He spent most of his working life in the tropics

Tropics

The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately  N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at  S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...

, particularly Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

 (then known as Tanganyika) and later The Gambia

The Gambia

The Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambia , is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west....

, studying the transfer of malaria

Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

 between mosquitos and humans. He was awarded the Chalmers and Christophers Medals for his seminal contribution to the understanding of the role of mosquito behaviour in the transfer of malaria

Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

. He was also a world authority on the mayfly

Mayfly

Mayflies are insects which belong to the Order Ephemeroptera . They have been placed into an ancient group of insects termed the Palaeoptera, which also contains dragonflies and damselflies...

.

Mick Gillies was not only highly respected for his academic achievements; he was widely loved for his warm and humorous personality.

He was the youngest son of the eminent plastic surgeon Sir Harold Gillies

Harold Gillies

Sir Harold Delf Gillies was a New Zealand-born, and later London based, otolaryngologist who is widely considered as the father of plastic surgery.-Personal life:Gillies was born in Dunedin, New Zealand...

, but was also proud to be descended from one of Edward Lear

Edward Lear

Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...

's sisters. He is survived by two daughters from his first marriage, and by his second wife.