Derek Sampson was born in London in 1937 and went to medical school in Birmingham where he obtained a BSc in physiology in 1959. After graduating MB, ChB in 1962 he trained in general surgery passing both the English and Edinburgh fellowship examinations. He had developed an interest in transplantation and was able to spend two years at Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, New York. He returned as senior registrar in the department of surgery at Cambridge University with Professor (Sir) Roy Caine where he became experienced in both clinical transplantation and research. In 1974 he was appointed to the surgical staff at the University of Wisconsin and in 1979 he moved to take charge of the transplant service at the Presbyterian Hospital at Pacific Medical Centre in California. There he continued his researches into the control of rejection without the need for maintenance immunosuppression. His early results of total lymphoid irradiation obtained in conjunction with the Stanford group were most encouraging but sadly he became seriously ill and was unable to see the long term results although his last paper on the subject was dictated from his sickbed a week before he died on 15 May 1984. He is survived by his wife and four children.