William Sims was a professor of microbiology at the University of London, Royal Dental Hospital. He was born in London on 25 November 1926. He studied dentistry at Guy’s in London, qualifying with his LDS in 1953. He went on to the University of Oregon, gaining a masters degree there in 1957. In 1959 he became a fellow of the faculty of dental surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England and gained a diploma in bacteriology in 1960 and a PhD in 1964. He became a member of the College of Pathologists in 1966 and a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 1975. Sims died on 25 March 2004. He was 77.