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Celebrating 50 Years of Genetics at Trinity
(Photo of Professor David McConnell)
In September, the Smurfit Institute of Genetics celebrated the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Department of Genetics in Trinity. We talked to Professor David McConnell B.A., M.A., S.F.T.C.D. (1966) about achievements in teaching and research in genetics.
WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF GENETICS IN TRINITY?
The late George Dawson M.A. (AD EUND. CANTAB), F.T.C.D. (1953) joined the School of Botany in 1950 and started research on bacterial genetics. In 1958 he persuaded the Irish Sugar Company to make a grant of a fifteen thousand pounds a year to found a Department of Genetics. In 1960, Adrienne Jessop M.A. (1960) was the first person to graduate with a moderatorship in genetics. The Department focussed on research, with research students outnumbering the Senior Sophisters, and this is still the case today. George Dawson also built a close relationship with the Agricultural Institute with Paddy Cunningham and Vincent Connolly from the Institute giving courses in animal and plant genetics.
HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERISE GEORGE DAWSON’S LEGACY?
George set the style and the standards, leading the Department until his retirement in 1987. He introduced methods of teaching and examining, always emphasising the importance of evidence. He ensured that the Department paid attention to the two pillars of genetics, the mathematical and the molecular. He saw talent in all students and encouraged them to develop and use their abilities to the utmost. He exemplified Richard Feynman’s idea of “The pleasure of finding things out”. We are all in his debt.
(Photo captioned: Professor Paddy Cunningham retains his personal chair in Trinity and is now the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government.)
(Photo captioned: George Dawson (1927-2004) after receiving his honorary degree in 1998 during the Department's 40th anniversary celebrations.)
(Photo captioned: Rose Deegan, M.A. (h.c.) (1993), was secretary of the Department from 1963 to 1993.)
THE SCHOOL OF GENETICS IS KNOWN AS SMURFIT INSTITUTE OF GENETICS. WHY?
The Department moved into the state-of-the-art Smurfit Institute of Genetics in 1998 with generous support from Dr Michael Smurfit, Dr Martin Naughton, Atlantic Philanthropies and the Wellcome Trust.
WHAT ARE THE INSTITUTE’S MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS?
In the 1970s research extended into the fields of molecular genetics, biotechnology, evolutionary and medical genetics, in the 1980s into plant genetics and genomics, and most recently neurogenetics. Today, the Department has an international reputation. Important scientific discoveries have been made, including external suppressors of frame shift mutations by Thompson and Atkins, mutations causing blindness by Humphries and Farrar, on the role of genome duplication in evolution by Wolfe and McLysaght, and on the evolution of the HIV virus by Sharp. No list can do justice to my colleagues, but it does show the breadth of our research, which is reflected in our teaching.
>> TRINITY GENETICS AT A GLANCE
• Founded in 1958
• 510 graduates with B.A. (Mod) in Genetics and B.A. (Mod) in Human Genetics
• Over 100 graduates with M.Sc. or Ph.D. degrees
• In 2007, Trinity was ranked seventh among world universities in genetics and molecular biology on the basis of citations per paper
• €7M in annual research funding
• 15 research groups with over 100 members of postgraduate staff from 30 countries
For more information please contact:
Professor David McConnell, Smurfit Institute of Genetics
t. +353 1 8961140
e.
gensec@tcd.ie
www.tcd.ie/Genetics
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