I FIRST SAW THE GRAND PORTICO OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON (‘UCL’) when I was 12 years old, and it impressed me greatly.

7 years later, when I was trying to decide what to study at university, I was advised by a family friend, the biologist Professor Lewis Wolpert (1929-2021). He suggested that physiology was the subject that fitted in well with my interests at the time. Back in the late 1960s, UCL was the best place to study physiology in the UK. So, when Lewis Wolpert suggested that I apply there, rather than Cambridge, I remembered the portico and was happy that I would be attending courses at UCL.

On my first day at UCL, one of my fellow first-year physiology students was a young lady from India. Several years later, she became my wife.

Maybe I should thank Lewis Wolpert not only for suggesting I study at UCL, but also for making it possible to meet my future spouse.