Walter Bodmer | |
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 Walter Bodmer, 2023 | |
| Born | Walter Fred Bodmer (1936-01-10)10 January 1936 (age 89)[6] |
| Education | Manchester Grammar School |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge (BA, PhD) |
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| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | The study of population genetics and gene effects, with special reference to Primula vulgaris and the house mouse (1959) |
| Academic advisors | Ronald Fisher[2] |
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| Website | |
Sir Walter Fred BodmerFRS FRSE (born 10 January 1936[7]) is a German-born Britishhuman geneticist.[8]
Bodmer was born inFrankfurt, Germany.[9] He was educated atManchester Grammar School and went on to study theMathematical Tripos at theUniversity of Cambridge as a student ofClare College, Cambridge. He was awarded his PhD in 1959 from Cambridge for research onpopulation genetics in thehouse mouse andPrimula vulgaris (primrose) supervised byRonald Fisher.[2]
In 1961 Bodmer joinedJoshua Lederberg's laboratory in the genetics department ofStanford University as apostdoctoral researcher, continuing his work onpopulation genetics.[10] In 1962 Walter Bodmer was appointed to the faculty at Stanford. He left Stanford University in 1970 to become the first professor of genetics at theUniversity of Oxford.[11][12]
Bodmer was Vice-President of theRoyal Institution from 1981 until 1982.[13]
Bodmer developed models forpopulation genetics and worked on thehuman leukocyte antigen system and the use ofsomatic cellhybrids for humanlinkage studies. In 1985 he chaired aRoyal Society committee which wroteThe Bodmer Report; this has been credited[14] with starting the movement for thepublic understanding of science.[15] The report was instrumental in leading to the creation of theCommittee on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) in 1987.
Bodmer was one of the first to suggest the idea of theHuman Genome Project.[16] In 1987 he received theEllison-Cliffe Medal from theRoyal Society of Medicine. He was the director of research (1979–1991) and thendirector general (1991–1996) of theImperial Cancer Research Fund. He was alsochancellor of theUniversity of Salford, England (1995–2005; succeeded bySir Martin Harris) andprincipal ofHertford College, Oxford (1996–2005; succeeded byDr. John Landers).
In 2005, Bodmer was appointed to lead a £2.3 million project (roughly US$4.5 million) by theWellcome Trust at theUniversity of Oxford to examine the genetic makeup of the United Kingdom – thePeople of the British Isles project. He was joined by Oxford ProfessorPeter Donnelly (a population genetics and statistics expert) and the Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow Lon Cardon. Bodmer said, "Our aim is to characterise the genetic make-up of the British population and relate this to the historical and archaeological evidence." The researchers presented some of their findings to the public via theChannel 4 television series "Faces of Britain". On 14 April 2007, Channel 4 inBritain aired a program that highlighted the study's then-current findings. The project tookDNA samples from hundreds of volunteers throughout Britain, seeking tell-tale fragments of DNA that would reveal the biological traces of successive waves of colonisers –Celts,Saxons,Vikings, etc. – in various parts of Britain. The findings showed that the Viking invasion of Britain was predominantly from Danish Vikings while theOrkney Islands were settled by Norwegian Vikings. This research was most recently presented at theGalton Institute's conference on 'New Light on Old Britons' in 2019.[17] Bodmer had previously worked with the Galton Institute as its president from 2008 to 2014.[18]
He has been head of the cancer and immunogenetics laboratory in the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at theUniversity of Oxford since 1996.[19] Research interests of the laboratory include the fundamental genetics and biology ofcolorectal cancer.
Bodmer has won numerous awards including:
His certificate of election to the Royal Society reads:[21]
Distinguished for his theoretical and experimental contributions to genetics. His analyses of population genetics models, especially human, his contribution to the understanding of bacterial transformation, to the understanding of the HL-A system, and to the use of somatic cell hybrids for human linkage studies are outstanding. Few scientists have contributed distinguished work in such a range of fields, and involving such a range of experience of techniques, mathematical and experimental, and such a range of organisms.
Bodmer's father was Jewish so the family were obliged to leave Nazi Germany; in 1938, they settled inManchester, England. In 1956, Walter Bodmer marriedJulia Bodmer (née Pilkington; 1934–2001); she also became a well-known geneticist. They had two sons and a daughter.[6]
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| Preceded by | Chancellor of the University of Salford 1995–2006 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Principal ofHertford College, Oxford 1996–2005 | Succeeded by |
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