(Edward) Miles Vaughan Williams (8 August 1918 – 31 August 2016) was a British cardiac pharmacologist and academic. He is best known for the Vaughan Williams classification of antidysrhythmic drugs. From 1955 to 1985, he was a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main ga ...

, and its

Tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...

in medicine.

Life

He was born in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

to Stella and Arthur Vaughan Williams. His father, an engineer working on the railways of India, was a cousin of the composer

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

. Schooling was at

Wellington college Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin * Wellington College, Wellington, Ne ...

, and university at

Wadham College Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

, where he studied philosophy and classics ( Greats). He became an ambulance officer during the second world war. Upon his return to Oxford, he switched from Greats to Medicine. In 1956 he married Marie, with whom he had three children.

Scientific work

He is best known for his work on beta-adrenoceptor antagonists (better known as

beta blocker Beta blockers, also spelled β-blockers, are a class of medications that are predominantly used to manage cardiac arrhythmia, abnormal heart rhythms, and to protect the heart from a second myocardial infarction, heart attack after a first heart ...

), and for the development of the first widely used classification system for antidysrhythmic drugs, commonly known as the

Vaughan Williams classification Antiarrhythmic agents, also known as cardiac dysrhythmia medications, are a group of pharmaceuticals that are used to suppress abnormally fast rhythms ( tachycardias), such as atrial fibrillation, supraventricular tachycardia and ventricular ta ...

. This classification system is still widely taught. His work has been recognized through an honorary fellowship of the

American College of Clinical Pharmacology The American College of Clinical Pharmacology® (ACCP) is a national organization of clinical pharmacology healthcare professionals who seek to advance clinical pharmacology. History and mission In the 1960s, a group of physicians formulated th ...

and an honorary doctorate from the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

Hertford College

Miles was the first full science fellow of

, appointed in 1955. Apart from teaching, his major contribution to the college included improvements to the fabric of the building, and the design of the Holywell Quadrangle. He used funding from pharmaceutical companies to provide travel funds for medical students at the college.

Selected publications

* A classification of antiarrhythmic actions reassessed after a decade of new drugs (1984) * The multiple-modes of action of propafenone (1984) * Effects of selective alpha-1-adrenoceptor,alpha-2-adrenoceptor,beta-1-adrenoceptor and beta-2-adrenoceptor stimulation on potentials and contractions in the rabbit heart (1984) * Effects on rabbit nodal, atrial, ventricular and purkinje-cell potentials of a new antiarrhythmic drug, cibenzoline, which protects against action-potential shortening in hypoxia (1982)

Fitness

*You Don't Need a Gym (2010)

References

1918 births 2016 deaths British pharmacologists Fellows of Hertford College, Oxford British people in colonial India {{UK-med-bio-stub