My friend and mentor Piers Nye, who has died aged 75 of pulmonary fibrosis, was a teacher of physiology at the University of Oxford for more than 40 years, and a medical researcher. His laboratory was full of his homemade equipment, which he joked was held together with “chewing gum and bits of string”. He was a talented mentor of students and junior colleagues and worked to widen access to the university among under-represented groups.
Piers was born in Perth, Scotland. His father, Leslie Nye, was an insurance executive. After Piers’ mother, Grace (nee Evershed), died when he was 14, he was brought up in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, by Janet, one of his three older sisters, and her husband, Ian Tait, both general practitioners.
