Ron Douglas, professor of visual science, City University, pays tribute to Dr Gary Baker, senior lecturer in the Department of Optometry & Visual Science, City University London.
'I first came across Gary on the rugby field almost 40 years ago when we were both undergraduates at the University of Sussex. After obtaining a BSc in Experimental Psychology in 1976, he briefly left academia to manage a restaurant on the Kings Road, Chelsea. During this time, when rugby was still an amateur game, he played at a level that would now be professional in his beloved Wales. Requiring more of an intellectual challenge, Gary soon returned to science, obtaining an MSc in Neurophysiology in 1981 and a PhD from London Guildhall University on "the gustatory system of cypinoid fish" in 1987.
'Gary's attention then turned to the more mainstream area of mammalian vision. He spent a total of 12 years in the world-leading laboratories of Ray Guillery and Ian Thompson at the University of Oxford, and two years with Michael Stryker at the University of California, San Francisco. During this time he cemented his own international reputation, where his work, in particular, on the organisation and development of the mammalian retinal pathways (mainly with Ben Reese) and on changes in conduction velocity along individual nerve axons (with Michael Stryker) remain gold standards in their fields.
'He joined our department in 1999 and soon acquired a reputation as an inspired and inspiring teacher of ocular and visual anatomy and function. He was enormously popular among our students, being a frequent nominee for university teaching prizes voted for by the student body, which he deservedly won two years ago.
'Gary also made significant contributions to the running of the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. He took on the difficult roles of BSc optometry programme director in 2004, later transferring his energies to the task of coordinating the widening of student participation via the foundation degree in Ophthalmic Dispensing run in collaboration with City & Islington College. Many students have benefited from his gentle, but firm, guidance over the years.
'Despite his considerable achievements, Gary was a very modest man. I greatly appreciated his intelligence, straight talking and friendship. The space created by his parting - both physical (he was a big man) and intellectual - will be impossible to fill. He is deeply missed by colleagues and students alike. He leaves behind Maxine, his wife, and two daughters, Bonny and Holly, of whom he always spoke with great affection.'