My former PhD supervisor and colleague Brian Whitton, who has died aged 89, was an academic expert on the blue-green algae known as cyanobacteria.
He spent his entire career at the University of Durham, latterly leading a laboratory that performed much innovative research. Current methods for assessing plants and algae in UK rivers had their origins in his laboratory, and he was widely consulted by biologists in the water industry when algae-related problems arose.
