Tribute to Alan McCarthy, 1955 - 2025

I am deeply saddened to learn alan has passed. I was an undergrad student at Liverpool uni between 2002-2006 and have incredibly fond memories of proffesor McCarthy’s lectures and practical sessions. Very much a man who had a great passion not only for his work but also in helping to instill his passion in others! I am a secondary school science teacher today who was greatly inspired by him. I still to this day talk about him during my discussions with students and about my enjoyment of teaching microbiology. Thank you Professor. Rory B-V

So blessed to have had Alan in my life for over 60 years. He was my mentor and was always there for me . All that I have achieved in life has been influenced by his values and supported by him. When  I left Northern Ireland to study in England he was my anchor ,my safe space to be myself. I will miss his wit and humour and simply just being with him chatting about life and politics. We had many good times together, fab holidays and days out and wonderful memories to cherish. RIP my darling brother . ❤️❤️

Alan and I first met in the mid eighties at a Society for General Microbiology Conference in Swansea, fortuitously sitting together for dinner one evening. Over the following years we shared 5 case students, an EPSRC grant working on landfill microbiology and many, many hours of such rewarding and amusing discussionI spent 25 years teaching in Liverpool for a few days every December always staying at the Hollies. These were always one of the high spots of my year. In the early days I spent at least one evening with Linda in her studio learning the art of using the pottery wheel. My creations still adorn (my words) parts of our house. In April 2023 we met to support Chloe at her Inaugural Professorial Lecture at the University of Salford. He was such a lovely man, a great friend with a wonderful sense of fun, someone I miss already and someone I was so fortunate to know. Lots of love to all your wonderful family Alan. Richard Sharp.

The decades seem to have flown by since my undergrad days but I remember Alan as a brilliant lecturer. From actinomycetes to biofuels, his enthusiasm was infectious and played a large part in the choices that I made during my honours year. This subsequently led to the offer of a PhD with Alan on soil bioremediation, which I jumped at the chance. I have fond memories of many a long chat in Alan's office, having knocked on his door just to ask a quick question. And, like all of Alan's students, I recall many happy times spent with Alan and his wonderful family at their home in Saughall - the croquet tournaments, runaround table tennis, Linda and Alex making butterscotch sauce, playing with the dogs. I will be forever grateful for Alan's guidance and friendship during my PhD and subsequent career choices. Alan was the first to recognise that I could write well and I honestly don't know where I would be today if I hadn't had his encouragement to pursue science communication as a career.

I met Alan back in ‘73, in the first few days of arriving at Bath University where we were starting studies for the degree in Applied Biology. A lovely, friendly lad, generous with his time and his wit. After a few weeks it was obvious he was terribly lovelorn, missing Linda. By the second year, Linda had arrived and they both moved out to Radstock. We, a group of lads and friends were also living a little distance from the campus, on the way to Radstock at Peasedown St John. That distance from the University may even have brought us closer . Because it was a “sandwich course”, there were long periods of not meeting up each year, perhaps this stood us in good stead and laid a pattern of intermittent meeting up of the Radstock / Peasedown St John friends - was there really nine of us originally (?), now very sadly down to seven. We last came together in Anglesey in June, the beginning of the 70th year for many of us and more than 50 years since we all first met. Alan, you were one of life’s decent blokes. We’ll all miss you. Pat

I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Alan for the microbiology degree at Liverpool in 1996 after leaving the Royal Navy. Unfortunately for him he then struggled to shake me off until 2009 as he acted as personal tutor, PhD supervisor and then PI. They certainly broke the mould when they made Alan and I am so privileged to have worked for him over that period. He aptly named me the Nike Swoosh in 2005, tipping his glasses forward with the ‘just do it’ catchphrase as I procrastinated over completing my PhD thesis. He was a complete balance of unbelievable intellect, care, wit and empathy and he made it all look so easy and seamless. He continued to support and offer advice over the years as I established my own research group to which I will be forever grateful. I have missed our daily chats, jokes and time in his group, the lab social events at his house from summer croquet to Halloween and fireworks, just blissful. My sincere condolences to Alans family and friends, such a loss. - Darren Smith

I worked with Alan when we ran the University summer schools back in the day. He ran the Science strand for the young people and made sure that the experiments they did were interesting and exciting to a bunch of 17 year olds (extracting the DNA from a Kiwi fruit was the one I remember). Always one to encourage and inspire people in the area of science he went above and beyond to ensure that if anyone had a question about what they were doing or showed an interest in the subject then he would spend extra time explaining things to them.One young man was so fascinated by the fact that he could see actual DNA (it looked like cotton wool) that Alan gave him a small Eppendorf tube to keep it in explaining to him that by the morning it would have denatured and no longer look the same. I still remember that young man running up to me the following morning to show me what was left in the tube and telling me that Alan was right. That young man later studied Biochemistry at the University of Liverpool.He was an inspirational teacher and a lovey man with a great sense of humour. My thoughts are with his family.

Alan was my Ph.D. supervisor 93-96, and I could not have wished for a better mentor. I doubt I would have made it through to the end without Alans support, enthusiasm and sense of humour. He taught me so much, and not just about science. The way he always looked after his students and the way he treated people still inspires me today. I’m so sorry to hear this news, but have so many happy memories of the lab work, the 5-a-side football matches and the games of cricket we did together, plus also the ‘occasional’ pint in the Mount Vernon. Best wishes to his lovely family too who fed and watered me and manybother students over the years.