Matthew Cobb
Matthew Cobb in 2019
Born	(1957-02-04)4 February 1957 (age 68)
Alma mater	University of Sheffield (BA,PhD)
Awards	2021JBS Haldane Lecture
Scientific career
Fields	Zoology
Institutions	University of Manchester

Matthew Cobb (born 4 February 1957)^{[citation needed]} is a British zoologist andprofessor of zoology at theUniversity of Manchester. He is known for his popular science booksThe Egg & Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unravelled the Secrets of Sex, Life and Growth;Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code; andThe Idea of the Brain: A History. Cobb has appeared onBBC Radio 4'sThe Infinite Monkey Cage,The Life Scientific, andThe Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry, as well as onBBC Radio 3 and theBBC World Service.

Cobb earned his BA in Psychology at theUniversity of Sheffield. During the second year of his undergraduate studies he read an article about the recent discovery of theDrosophila melanogaster dunce mutant inNew Scientist and decided to focus on behaviour genetics in fruit flies, later saying he, "went on to do my PhD there, in Psychology and Genetics, looking at the mating behaviour of seven species of fruitfly. Psychology in those days was as much about animal behaviour as it was about human psychology, and I was lucky enough to be in one of the few places in the UK that studied [it]".^[1]

From 1981 to 1984, Cobb conductedtwin studies at London's Institute of Psychiatry (now theInstitute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience), research he later described as trying "to get human twins drunk".^[2] He has said, "This was interesting, but convinced me that I did not want to do research on human beings".^[1] In 1984, he obtained funding through theRoyal Society's Science Exchange Programme to work with Jean-Marc Jallon inGif-sur-Yvette, France, where he was introduced to the use of pheromones and smell by animals as a means of communication.^[1] Once his Royal Society grant finished, Cobb spent a year and a half working at theUniversité Sorbonne Paris Nord in Villetaneuse, where he lectured inpsychophysiology. In 1998, Cobb joined theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), working first at its Orsay facility, utilising Drosophila maggots to study the sense of smell, and from 1995 at its Laboratoire d'Ecologie in Paris where he investigatedolfactory communication in ants.^[1]

Since 2002,^[3] Cobb has worked at theUniversity of Manchester, initially as a lecturer in animal behaviour and later as professor of zoology.^[4]

Cobb has become known to a wider audience through his books for the general public. In 2007, his bookThe Egg and Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unravelled the Secrets of Sex, Life and Growth won the Thomson Reuters/Zoological Record Award for Communicating Zoology.^[5]

Life's Greatest Secret: The Story of the Race to Crack the Genetic Code, was shortlisted in 2015 for the £25,000Royal Society Winton Prize.^[6][7][8]

In 2020, Cobb's bookThe Idea of the Brain was the only science work to be shortlisted for the £50,000Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.^[9] It was also chosen as one ofThe Sunday Times' Books of the Year^[10] andThe Daily Telegraph listed it as one of its "50 best books of 2020".^[11]

Cobb has made many appearances on radio, including appearances on the BBC science programmesThe Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry,^[12]Inside Science,^[13] andThe Infinite Monkey Cage.^[14] In March 2020, he was the subject of the BBC Radio 4 programmeThe Life Scientific.^[15]

Cobb has written and provided expert comments for publications includingNew Scientist^[16][17] andThe Guardian,^[18][19] translated five books from French into English,^[3] and written two books on the history of France during World War II.^[20][21]

In December 2020,The Genetics Society said that it was "delighted to announce Professor Matthew Cobb as the winner of the 2021JBS Haldane Lecture" adding that he is expected to present his lecture at theRoyal Institution, in November 2021.^[22]

In 2024 Cobb was awardedThe Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal and Lecture by theRoyal Society for his work documenting the history of biology as both an author and a broadcaster.^[23]

• Cobb, Matthew (1 September 2022).The Genetic Age: Our Perilous Quest To Edit Life (Hardcover ed.).Profile Books.ISBN 978-1788167000.
• Cobb, Matthew (28 May 2020).Smell: A Very Short Introduction (Paperback ed.).Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0198825258.
• Cobb, Matthew (12 March 2020).The Idea of the Brain: A History (Hardcover ed.).Profile Books.ISBN 978-1781255896.
• Cobb, Matthew (11 June 2015).Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code (Hardcover ed.).Profile Books.ISBN 978-1781251409.
• Cobb, Matthew (11 April 2013).Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris in 1944 (Hardcover ed.).Simon & Schuster.ISBN 978-0857203175.
• Cobb, Matthew (27 May 2010).The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis (Paperback ed.).Simon & Schuster.ISBN 978-1847391568.
• Cobb, Matthew (2 April 2007).The Egg and Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unravelled the Secrets of Sex, Life and Growth (Mass Market Paperback ed.).Simon & Schuster.ISBN 978-1416526001.
• Cobb, Matthew (8 August 2006).Generation (Hardcover ed.).Bloomsbury Publishing.ISBN 978-1596910362.

• Morange, Michel (26 June 2020).The Black Box of Biology: A History of the Molecular Revolution. Translated by Cobb, Matthew (Hardcover ed.).Harvard University Press.ISBN 978-0674281363.

• Marion-Poll, Frédéric (1 September 2008). Newland, Philip; Cobb, Matthew; Marion-Poll, Frédéric (eds.).Insect Taste: Vol 63 (Society for Experimental Biology) (Hardcover ed.).Taylor & Francis.ISBN 978-0415436397.

• [1] – Prof Matthew Cobb at the University of Manchester website

• 1957 births
• Living people
• 20th-century British zoologists
• 21st-century British zoologists
• Alumni of the University of Sheffield
• British expatriate academics in France
• British science writers
• British zoologists
• French–English translators
• Academics of the University of Manchester

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• Articles with unsourced statements from December 2020