| 1 | Name: | Sir Walter Bodmer | |
| Institution: | Hertford College, Oxford; Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine | ||
| Year Elected: | 1989 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 204. Medicine, Surgery, Pathology and Immunology | ||
| Residency: | International | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1936 | ||
Sir Walter Bodmer was principal of Hertford College at Oxford University from 1996-2005. Formerly director general and director of research of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, he has served as president of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO); president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; chairman of the BBC Science consultative group; and chairman of the trustees of the Natural History Museum. The co-author of a classic book on human population genetics, he has contributed heavily to both the science and the theory of human genetics. Sir Walter has been a pioneer in elucidating the laws of tissue matches in humans, as well as in the mapping of genes on chromosomes by fusion of human and rodent cells in culture. He led the group that demonstrated that the gene for hereditary colonic polypsis is on chromosome 5. An eminently effective explicator of genetics and a public advocate for science, he has held academic appointments and honorary fellowships at Keble College, Oxford; Clare College, Cambridge; the Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons; and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1974, was knighted in 1986 and is a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences and a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He was chancellor of the University of Salford from 1995 to 2005. | |||