Letter from Denis Burkitt

Denis Parsons Burkitt ( 1911 - 1993 )

At the beginning of our careers, each of us has the dream of someday making a discovery that will change the way our respective disciplines regard something we now regard as fact. Denis Parsons Burkitt was able to change the course of our thinking twice in his career. More remarkably, the two discov eries were, to the casual observer, in widely different fields of study, i.e., the elucidation o...

Denis Burkitt and the African lymphoma

Burkitt lymphoma has provided a model for the understanding of the epidemiology, the molecular abnormalities that induce tumours, and the treatment of other lymphomas. It is important to remember that the early phases of this work were conducted in Africa where today, unfortunately, the disease usually results in death because of limited resources, even though most children in more developed co...

Denis Parsons Burkitt - 28 February 1911--23 March 1993.

Denis Burkitt and the origins of the dietary fibre hypothesis.

For more than 200 years the fibre in plant foods has been known by animal nutritionists to have significant effects on digestion. Its role in human nutrition began to be investigated towards the end of the 19th century. However, between 1966 and 1972, Denis Burkitt, a surgeon who had recently returned from Africa, brought together ideas from a range of disciplines together with observations fro...

Preliminary Galaxy Extraction from Denis

The extragalactic applications of NIR surveys are summarized with a focus on the ability to map the interstellar extinction of our Galaxy. Very preliminary extraction of galaxies on a set of 180 consecutive images is presented, and the results illustrate some of the pitfalls in attempting an homogeneous extraction of galaxies from these wide-angle and shallow surveys.