Austin MacInnis was an extraordinary parasitologist who had a great influence on the profession. He joined the faculty of the Biology Department at UCLA after completing his doctoral studies with Bob Short (Florida State University) and a post-doc with Clark Read (Rice Institute). He rose rapidly through the ranks and was appointed full professor in 1973. His academic career was dedicated to research and teaching, with service to the American Society of Parasitologists. He did this with compassion and humility, receiving many accolades from his colleagues and friends in the process.
I first met Austin, in print, way back in 1965. Working in Rhodesia on host–parasite interactions, I had realized that schistosome miracidia must respond to some stimuli in the process of detecting intermediate host snails and, thus, completed a manuscript and sent it off to the Journal of Parasitology for consideration. To my interest and surprise, I received a...