Citizenship United Kingdom Name Norman Maclean | Role Author Fields Biology, Genetics | |
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Institutions University of Southampton Spouse Jean Kay Smith: Married 1962 Children Lorna: born 1965 and Gavin: born 1967 Residence Southampton, United Kingdom Books Cell commitment and differ, Custer's Last Stand: The Unfin, Genes and gene regulation, The differentiation of cells, Ice Skating Basics | ||
Norman maclean wmv
Norman Maclean (SDA, BSc, PhD, FLS) is an Emeritus Professor of Genetics at The University of Southampton. Besides genetics he has worked in wildlife conservation and river management. He has been a Director of the Test and Itchen Association, and a panel member of the European Food Safety Authority. He is an elected Fellow of the Institute of Biology and the Linnaean Society. Served as the editor of the Molecular and Cell Science section of the Journal of Fish Biology, and also on editorial boards of other journals in the past. Norman was also a Trustee of Marwell Wildlife Park for many years, and served as its Honorary Scientific Advisor.
Contents
- Norman maclean wmv
- Book club a river runs through it by norman maclean
- Biography
- Scientific career
- References
Norman has authored, co-authored and edited over a dozen textbooks and reference books in genetics and cell biology. Between 1984 and 1991 he edited an annual review entitled 'Oxford Surveys on Eukaryotic Genes' (published by Oxford University Press) and most recently edited Silent Summer (Cambridge University Press, 2010). His most recent book A Less Green and Pleasant Land (Cambridge University Press, 2015) was published in early 2015. He is currently working on a new multi-author book, due to be called “The Living Planet: The Present State of the World’s Wildlife”
Book club a river runs through it by norman maclean
Biography
Norman was born in 1932 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was educated at George Heriot's School before going on to obtain a Scottish Diploma in Agriculture at Edinburgh University. Changing track he graduated with a 1st Class Honours in Zoology, and later completed his PhD on ribosome/messenger RNA specificity. Following the completion of his doctorate, Norman spent a year at Rockefeller University, New York as a Sir Henry Wellcome fellow.
Norman married Jean Kay Smith in 1962. Jean has worked as a medical general practitioner for most of her married life, and together they have two children; Lorna, born in 1965, and Gavin born in 1967
Although reared in a Protestant sect called the 'Exclusive Brethren'; Norman is now an active member of the British Humanist Association and currently serves as a chair of the local branch.
His entry in Who's Who indicates his hobbies as fly fishing, tennis and gardening.
Norman began his career as a lecturer at the University of Southampton at the [then] Department of Zoology under the headship of Professor Leslie Brent, was later promoted to a personal chair in Genetics, and eventually went on to become Head of the Department of Biology.
During his career he has been a visiting fellow and professor at many Universities, notably including; the University of California at Davis; the University of Dalhousie, Canada; the Institute of Hydrobiology, Wuhan, China; the Oceanographic Institute, Cumana, Venezuela; the Institute of Cell Biology, Moscow; and the Biotechnology Institute, Godollo, Hungary.
Scientific career
Norman's career began with research attempts to understand the developmental switching of globin genes. In the vast majority of vertebrates there are distinct embryonic, foetal and adult globins. Norman's early work was directed at trying to reactivate foetal globin expression, chiefly working with the amphibian Xenopus and chickens. He was, however, unsuccessful in this project; and indeed the problem remains largely unsolved until the present.
Moving on and with the advent of molecular genetics and the availability of cloned gene sequences, Norman worked – for a time – with Professor Steve Wratten on the use of DNA fingerprinting in understanding aphid infections of cereal crops. For a few years he also collaborated with Dr David Oscier (a medical consultant at Bournemouth Hospital) on the haematological disease of polycythaemia.
Norman is best known for his pioneering work on transgenic fish, along with his friend and colleague Zuoyen Zhu. Using rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), zebrafish (Danio rerio) and tilapia; he used molecular methods to study gene regulation in fish, and was successful in producing growth-enhanced transgenic tilapia for use in the third world. He also collaborated with Aquagene in the United States in producing transgenic tilapia expressing human factor VII (a clotting factor) in their livers.