Neil Douglas: sleep researcher and co-founder of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management

In an early job interview Neil Douglas was asked by a professor what his career plans were “when all this sleep business is over.”

Douglas, who has died at the age of 71, then made development of his specialty and research into treatments for sleep disorders the main planks of his working life. He founded Edinburgh’s Sleep Centre, one of the first of its kind, in 1983 and the British Sleep Society six years later. “Many thought we were from the lunatic fringe trying to establish sleep as a branch of medicine in the UK,” he said. “I felt inviting some international speakers to enthuse the struggling UK workers would help.”