The School of Biological Sciences is shocked and deeply saddened to report the death of Professor Steve Morris. He was involved in a road accident while cycling to work on Tuesday 11 August and subsequently died in hospital of his injuries. We lose a colleague and friend, a passionate teacher and researcher. Science loses a world expert on the physiological adaptations of animals to extreme environments. He leaves behind his wife, Maria, and three children of whom our thoughts and wishes are with.

Steve gained his Ph.D. in 1983 from the University of Edinburgh, his B.Sc. in 1980 from the University of London. He had an early and rapid rise in science, winning the President's Medal from the Society for Experimental Biology, and going on to postdoctoral positions in Dusseldorf and Calgary, before becoming a lecturer at the University of Sydney in 1990. He rose to Deputy Head of School in Sydney, before coming to Bristol in November 1999, when he joined the University of Bristol as a Reader. Steve became Professor of Biological Sciences in 2006, leading the highly successful Environmental and Evolutionary Physiology Laboratory in the School of Biological Sciences. Despite strong research commitments, involving fieldwork across the globe to places as far flung as Christmas Island, Steve taught in all three years of the Biological Sciences degree programme and led an undergraduate field course to South Africa. As a scientist, teacher and colleague he will be sorely missed.

This appreciation comes from Professor Innes Cuthill in the School of Biological Sciences.