Dr Ed Campbell

  1924 - 2010

It is with great sadness that we have to report that Dr Ed Campbell, the inventor of the Spiral Plater, passed away on 15th March 2010.

The Spiral Plater was first shown at the American Society for Microbiology Meeting in 1973 – see attached paper. 

1973 Spiral Plating ASM Journal

Today the spiral plate technique for bacterial enumeration is accepted throughout the world as the gold standard. The Spiral Plater has improved the quality of plate counts and in the process saved countless millions of pounds/dollars/euros etc.

Another bi-product of this fantastic invention was that it helped the development of a number of small companies all of which have become major players as suppliers to microbiologists. Amongst these companies would be:
Meintrup DWS – Germany
LED Techno – Belgium
Interscience – France
Microbiology International – USA
And of course ourselves, Don Whitley Scientific.

There are many of us around the world who owe a debt of gratitude to Ed as a business associate and good friend.