The Society regrets to hear that member Professor Sheila Jennett has died aged 98. Professor Jennett was a distinguished physiologist working on respiratory, cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology. Her 1989 textbook Human Physiology became a staple for a generation of medical and life-science students. 

Early on, Jennett had her mind set on a career in medicine and so switched from an all-girls to an all-boys school to complete the necessary scientific studies. She won a scholarship at her hometown’s medical school at the University of Liverpool, UK. After graduating, she spent 13 years in clinical practice, first as an accomplished General Surgeon before specialising in respiratory medicine. 

She worked in seven hospitals between Liverpool, Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow, always finding herself in the minority as a woman. In the early 60’s, she and her family settled in Glasgow, when she joined the predominantly male physiology department at the University of Glasgow, UK. During this time, she worked on her MD thesis addressing drug-induced respiratory depression, and went onto study hypoxia and hyperoxia for her PhD.  

Jennett was later appointed Professor at University of Glasgow. Here, she published her research on respiratory and cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology in several scientific and medical journals, which she presented around the world including the US and Japan.  She co-authored a number of these papers with international neurosurgeons, who had initially planned to work with her husband, the neurosurgeon Bryan Jennett, but were drawn to collaborate with Sheila Jennett to research disorders associated with brain damage. She was a brilliant teacher, who sponsored and mentored colleagues and PhD students nationally and internationally. 

In the late 70’s, Professor Jennett was promoted to Head of the Physiology Department. She was recognised as a fair and progressive leader, who went onto establish respiration as a specialist field in the department. She was in demand as Examiner at the Royal Colleges in Glasgow and Kings College London, as well as the Universities of Dublin, Belfast and Dundee. In 1983, she was awarded Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow.  

After retiring in 1991, Professor Jennett worked on two books. She co-edited The Oxford Companion to the Body (2001) with Colin Blakemore and she published Churchill Livingstone Dictionary of Sport and Exercise Science and Medicine in 2008.