Guido Pontecorvo ( November 29, 1907 , Pisa , Italy - September 25, 1999 , Alps , Switzerland ) - English and Italian geneticist .
| Guido Pontecorvo | |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | November 29, 1907 |
| Place of Birth | Pisa , Italy |
| Date of death | September 25, 1999 (91 years old) |
| Place of death | Alps , Switzerland |
| A country |  Great Britain  Italy |
| Scientific field | genetics |
| supervisor | |
| Awards and prizes | member of the Royal Society of London Darwin Medal ( 1978 ) [d] ( 1962 ) |
Biography
Born November 29, 1907 in Pisa. In 1923 he entered the University of Pisa , which he graduated in 1928. In 1930 he moved to Florence, where he worked until 1938. From 1938 to 1940 and from 1943 to 1945, he worked at the Edinburgh Institute of Animal Genetics. From 1941 to 1943 and from 1945 to 1968, he worked at the University of Glasgow, in 1945 he was elected professor of genetics. From 1968 to 1975 he worked as an employee of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, since 1975 he worked as an honorary consultant in the same place. In 1968 he graduated from the University of Leicester.
Tragically died on September 25, 1999 in the Alps, tearing off a mountain during a mushroom picking for research.
Personal life
Guido Pontecorvo was married to the Swiss art critic Leonor (Leni). From this marriage, he has one daughter - Lisa (b. 1944 ).
Memory
A few years after his tragic death, an award of his name was created, which is awarded to geneticists.
Scientific work
The main scientific works are devoted to molecular genetics.
- 1952 - Together with M. Green and E. Lewis, he proved that the gene is shared not only mutationally, but also by crossover .
- 1954 - opened the process of gene recombination in imperfect Aspergillus nidulans fungi and called it parasexual , thereby initiating a study of the mechanism of this process in various species of fungi that do not have a sexual reproduction cycle.
Society Memberships
- Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1958)
- Honorary Member of the Danish Royal Society of Sciences (1966)
- Member of the Royal London (1955) and Linnaeus (1971) societies
- Foreign Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1983) [1]
- Member of several other scientific societies