Few in the lipid world have achieved as much as the late scientist, Dr David Horrobin. He was true visionary in this field, as manifest in the prolific volume of scientific papers that he published (939) and patents that he authored (114). Since his death in 2003, many of his ideas have been proven through subsequent research. It is fair to say that David was a man ahead of his time.

We are deeply connected to David Horrobin, both personally and professionally. David was the father of one of the founders of Equateq, Cathra Kelliher. He also was the first to see the potential of the Callanish site, which he developed as the main research facility for Scotia Pharmaceuticals. The methods he implemented for enriching fatty acids, such as Crystallisation and large-scale HPLC, are still cutting edge and unique in the lipid sector.

Equateq is fortunate to possess the David Horrobin archive: arguably the most extensive knowledge base in the fatty acid world. David was an assiduous collector of papers, documents and books, all of which were fastidiously catalogued. We have about 45,000 papers, hundreds of books, most of them out of print and some of them going back to the 1930s. It is a remarkable body of knowledge, and quite a humbling resource: it constantly yields discoveries, quickly allowing us to understand the background to even the most arcane lipid topics.

Cathra Kelliher opened the David Horrobin Memorial Library on Sept 25, 2007. At that event, attended by many of David's friend and colleagues, she declared that she intends this facility to be a magnet for fine minds, a place where people can come and think and progress with the voyage of discovery that her father dedicated his life to. The library has already benefited from donations of books by Prof Mehar Manku and Prof Keith Coupland. We intend to keep growing the archive, to maintain its position as the leading such knowledge base in the fatty acid world.

More details on David's full career can be found onWikipedia and a scientific bibliography rests within the website run by Lipid Consultant Peter Lapinskas.