100th Birthday Party
Photograph: Douglas Vernimmen
From left: David Hopwood (John Innes Centre), Sir Paul Nurse (Crick), David Sherratt (Oxford), Jonathan Hodgkin (Oxford), Veronica Van Heyningen (Edinburgh), Enrico Coen (John Innes Centre), Wendy Bickmore (Edinburgh), and Laurence Hurst (Bath).
To celebrate 100 years to the day since the first meeting of the then named “Genetical Society”, a birthday get-together of past presidents, medal winners and committee members was held at the John Innes Centre (JIC) on 25th June 2019.
Edith Rebecca Saunders and William Bateson met at Cambridge and together formed the Society. Bateson subsequently became director of the John Innes Centre in 1910, when it was based in Merton.
Two blue plaques were unveiled by ex Society President Sir Paul Nurse, one dedicated to each of these remarkable scientists, and will be erected in Cambridge at a later date (TBC)
Sir Paul was presented with the Genetics Society Centenary Medal by president Laurence Hurst, and then gave a talk about his work with yeast, peppered with plenty of interesting and entertaining anecdotes.
A birthday party was later held at The Assembly House in Norwich.
