Giles Skey BRINDLEY

Background

BRINDLEY, Giles was born on April 30, 1926. Son of late Arthur James Benet and Doctor Margaret Beatrice Marion Skey.

Education

Leyton Company High School, Downing College, Cambridge, London Hospital Medical School.

Career

He had injected papaverine into his penis in his hotel room before the presentation. He is also a pioneer in visual prosthetics, developing one of the first visual prostheses in the 1960s. The device was tested on four blind patients, giving them some basic visual sensation, but given the technology of the day further development was impractical.

He also developed sacral anterior root stimulators for bladder control in paraplegic patients.

Trained in Cambridge and London Hospital. he saw service in the Royal Air Force before taking up academic appointments first in Cambridge and then at the University of London, authoring more than 100 scientific papers in a variety of subjects. He was doctoral advisor to David Marr (neuroscientist) who later developed computational theories of vision that had great impact in the neuroscience of vision and computer vision, and post-doctoral adviser to Duco Hamasaki, a professor at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

He gave the 1986 Ferrier Lecture, a triennial Royal Society prize lectureship. Brindley invented a musical instrument in the 1960s, the "logical bassoon", an electronically controlled version of the bassoon.

lieutenant was easier to play than a normal bassoon, but was never marketed.

He has also composed music for wind instruments, including Variations on a Theme by Schoenberg.

Membership

Royal Society.

Interests

• Skiing, orienteering, cross-country and track running, designing and playing musical instruments.

Connections

Married 1st Lucy Dunk Bennell in 1959 (dissolved). Married 2nd Doctor Hilary Richards in 1964.

Father:

late Arthur James Benet

Mother:

Doctor Margaret Beatrice Marion Skey

Spouse:

Doctor Hilary Richards

Spouse:

Lucy Dunk Bennell