He had spent his entire academic career in the University of Oxford, graduating from Christ Church in Biochemistry in 1963 from where he joined the Department of Pharmacology to do research for a D.Phil.

He has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Szeged and Lund and is a member of the Hungarian and Norwegian Academies of Science. In 2000 he was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK. In 2006 he was made the first Honorary Research Fellow of Alzheimer’s Research UK, having served for 5 years as the first Chair of their Scientific Advisory Board. After retiring he has continued his research into the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.