Hélio Gelli Pereira (September 23, 1918 – 16 August 1994) was a Brazilian-British virologist specialising in adenoviruses. Pereira was a co-recipient of the 1988 UNESCO Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology and was known for his work on the book, Viruses of Vertebrates. He contributed to several areas of virology in research and international public service. Early life and education Pereira was born in the town of Petrópolis in the state of Rio de Janeiro to Raul Pereira Geronymo (Portuguese, via the Azores) and Maria Gelli Pereira, of Italian origin. His early years were spent in Petrópolis, where he was influenced by his Italian-Brazilian family. Pereira began attending the Colégio Pitanga primary school in Rio de Janeiro in 1924 and then in 1928 moved to the Anglo-American School also in Rio de Janeiro. The school had no scientific facilities, and he believed that he barely passed his examinations. Despite this, Pereira entered the Faculty of Medicine in Niterói. Although the school in Niterói also had poor scientific equipment, his teachers were enthusiastic and Pereira worked toward a microbiology degree with the help of Arlindo de Assis and A. Monteiro Filho. Halfway through the course, he worked part-time as a technician in the clinical pathology laboratory of a local hospital. In 1941, Pereira received his medical diploma. The following year, he began a postgraduate course in biology at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. After compulsory military service, which he served in a cavalry regiment, the Dragões da Independência, Pereira returned and graduated with honors. Early work Pereira held several part-time positions, including in clinical pathology at public and private institutions, in 1943 and 1944. He completed assistantships in microbiology under A. Monteiro Filho, and in neurology under D. Couto. Chafing at the routine, Pereira received a British Council Scholarship to study microbiology in the UK. In England, he worked in the University of Manchester's department of microbiology under virology pioneer Hugh Bethune Maitland and bacterial taxonomist Samuel Tertius Cowan. Pereira then spent a short time at Liverpool University under Allan Watt Downie. After eight months in Manchester, Pereira moved to London to work at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and spent a year working under Christopher Andrewes and W. J. Elford. He said about this time, "Although this period of postgraduate training did not lead to formal qualifications or published papers, it was certainly one of the most satisfactory and