John Leonard Jinks
Encyclopedia
John Leonard Jinks was a British
geneticist
. His untimely death at 57 cut short a distinguished career with many contributions in the fields of microbial genetics, cytoplasmic inheritance, and biometrical genetics
.
, and supervising a number of students who went on to make their own contributions, among them David Fulker
. He was a scientific officer/principal scientific officer in the ARC Unit of Biometrical Genetics from 1953 to 1965. In 1960 he was made an honorary lecturer in the Birmingham University Department of Genetics, eventually becoming Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and Pro-Vice Chancellor. Elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1970 he is best known for his studies of cytoplasmic inheritance and quantitative genetics
.
In recounting his own career, Nobel prize
winner Sir Paul Nurse recounts how his lack of a foreign language (essential for university study in the UK in those days) had seen him rebuffed from several universities. He met Jinks fortuitously, and, recognising a promising intellect, Jinks smoothed the obstacles from Nurse's path, leading to his successful enrollment and, subsequently, Nobel winning discoveries regarding cell cycle
regulation by cyclin
and cyclin dependent kinases.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
geneticist
Geneticist
A geneticist is a biologist who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer. Some geneticists perform experiments and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of skills. A geneticist is also a Consultant or...
. His untimely death at 57 cut short a distinguished career with many contributions in the fields of microbial genetics, cytoplasmic inheritance, and biometrical genetics
Quantitative genetics
Quantitative genetics is the study of continuous traits and their underlying mechanisms. It is effectively an extension of simple Mendelian inheritance in that the combined effects of one or more genes and the environments in which they are expressed give rise to continuous distributions of...
.
Career
He was educated at Birmingham University and remained there for the majority of his career, contributing to the development of biometrical genetics, human behavioural geneticsBehavioural genetics
Quantitative human behavioural genetics is a specialisation in the biological field of behaviour genetics that studies the role of genetics in human behaviour employing quantitative-genetic methods. The field is an overlap of quantitative genetics and psychology...
, and supervising a number of students who went on to make their own contributions, among them David Fulker
David Fulker
David W. Fulker was a behavioural geneticist. Among positions of esteem, he was elected president of the Behavior Genetics Association , and was executive editor of the society's journal Behavior Genetics...
. He was a scientific officer/principal scientific officer in the ARC Unit of Biometrical Genetics from 1953 to 1965. In 1960 he was made an honorary lecturer in the Birmingham University Department of Genetics, eventually becoming Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and Pro-Vice Chancellor. Elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1970 he is best known for his studies of cytoplasmic inheritance and quantitative genetics
Quantitative genetics
Quantitative genetics is the study of continuous traits and their underlying mechanisms. It is effectively an extension of simple Mendelian inheritance in that the combined effects of one or more genes and the environments in which they are expressed give rise to continuous distributions of...
.
In recounting his own career, Nobel prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner Sir Paul Nurse recounts how his lack of a foreign language (essential for university study in the UK in those days) had seen him rebuffed from several universities. He met Jinks fortuitously, and, recognising a promising intellect, Jinks smoothed the obstacles from Nurse's path, leading to his successful enrollment and, subsequently, Nobel winning discoveries regarding cell cycle
Cell cycle
The cell cycle, or cell-division cycle, is the series of events that takes place in a cell leading to its division and duplication . In cells without a nucleus , the cell cycle occurs via a process termed binary fission...
regulation by cyclin
Cyclin
Cyclins are a family of proteins that control the progression of cells through the cell cycle by activating cyclin-dependent kinase enzymes.- Function :...
and cyclin dependent kinases.
External links
- Jinks papers at the UK National Archives: NCUACS 7.6.88