Friends. Laudo fructum boni operis: “I praise the fruit of good works.” Were St. Augustine writing these words today, surely he would have in mind the likes of Lance Anthony Durden, for, on the one hand, my longtime friend is among the world's foremost practitioners of parasitology, whereas on the other he remains, miraculously, a man of surpassing personal warmth, unfeigned humility, and selfless generosity, qualities of character that are by no means catholic in scholarly circles.
Lance comes to us by way of places as disparate as the U.K. and the American State of Georgia. A native Mancunian, his first substantive trip south was to attend Royal Holloway College, University of London, earning his B.Sc. in 1977, with a major in zoology, and graduating first in his class. In 1981, he was awarded the Ph.D., also from the University of London, but, tellingly, with a New World twist, in...