Guido Pontecorvo

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Guido Pontecorvo, from his years at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, 1968-80
Guido Pontecorvo
Born29 November 1907
Pisa, Italy
Died25 September 1999 (1999-09-26) (aged 91)
CitizenshipBritish (born Italy)
Scientific career
Fieldsgeneticist
InstitutionsUniversity of Glasgow, Imperial Cancer Research Fund
Doctoral studentsObaid Siddiqi

Guido Pellegrino Arrigo Pontecorvo FRS[1][2] (29 November 1907, Pisa, Italy – 25 September 1999) was an Italian-born British geneticist.[3][4][5][6]

Career

Guido Pontecorvo, was born into a family of wealthy Italian Industrialists. He fled to Britain after being dismissed from his post in Florence in 1938, due to his Jewish heritage.[2]

  • Department of Zoology, University of Glasgow, 1941–44
  • Dept of Genetics, University of Glasgow, 1945-68 (Professor 1956-68)
  • Honorary Director, MRC Unit of Cell Genetics, 1966–68
  • Member of research staff, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, 1968–75
  • Honorary Consultant Geneticist, ICRF, 1975–80

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1955.[1]

He was one of eight children. He was a brother to Gillo Pontecorvo and Bruno Pontecorvo.

Legacy

The current genetics building at the University of Glasgow is named in honour of Guido Pontecorvo. The Pontecorvo Building is part of the Anderson College complex located on Dumbarton Road in the West End of Glasgow. It houses one of the few working Paternoster elevators in the UK.

He has also lent his name to the annual Pontecorvo award, presented to the most promising genetics student in the department.

Past Winners:

2003 - Robert Irving
2004 - John Rowell
2007 - Katie Armstrong
2009 - Stuart Meiklejohn
2010 - Angela Wilson

References

  1. ^ a b Siddiqi, O. (2002). "Guido Pontecorvo. 29 November 1907 - 25 September 1999". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 48: 375. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2002.0022.
  2. ^ a b "Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics: The Guido Pontecorvo papers". Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  3. ^ Cohen, B. L. (2007). "Guido Pontecorvo ("Ponte"): A centenary memoir". Genetics. 177 (3): 1439–1444. PMC 2147990. PMID 18039877.
  4. ^ Cohen, B. L. (2000). "Guido Pontecorvo ("Ponte"), 1907-1999". Genetics. 154 (2): 497–501. PMC 1460947. PMID 10655205.
  5. ^ Siddiqi, O. (1999). "Guido Pontecorvo (1907-99)". Nature. 402 (6759): 250. doi:10.1038/46201. PMID 10580492.
  6. ^ Roper, J. A.; Hopwood, D. A. (1988). "Guido Pontecorvo and his contribution to genetics". Cancer surveys. 7 (2): 229–237. PMID 3066472.