Sir Alan Sterling Parkes FRS

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(10 September 1900 – 17 July 1990) was an English reproductive biologist credited with

Christopher Polge Ernest John Christopher Polge (16 August 1926 – 17 August 2006) was an English biologist, most noted for his work in cryopreservation. The son of a Buckinghamshire farmer, he was educated at Bootham School in York, before going to the Univers ...

and

Audrey Smith Audrey Ursula Smith (21 May 1915 – 3 June 1981) was a British cryobiologist, who discovered the use of glycerol to protect human red blood cells during freezing. Early life and education Audrey Smith was born in India on 21 May 1915, and ...

for the discovery that spermatozoa can be protected against induced damage induced by freezing and low-temperature storage using glycerol. This work enabled the development of the field of

cryobiology Cryobiology is the branch of biology that studies the effects of low temperatures on living things within Earth's cryosphere or in science. The word cryobiology is derived from the Greek words κρῧος ryos "cold", βίος ios "life", and λό ...

. Hall was educated at

Willaston School Willaston School was an educational establishment in Nantwich set up to educate the sons of impoverished Unitarian ministers. The building is currently used as accommodation for students at Reaseheath College. Philip Barker came from a family of ...

. He published on the reproductive effects of X-rays on mice, hormonal control of secondary sexual characteristics in birds, and aided

Hilda Bruce Hilda Margaret Bruce (5 April 1903 – 2 November 1974) was a British zoologist, best known for her discovery of the Bruce effect, a pheromonal behaviour observed in many rodent species. Her work on the control of fertility earned her the Olive ...

in research that established the

Bruce effect The Bruce effect, or pregnancy block, is the tendency for female rodents to terminate their pregnancies following exposure to the scent of an unfamiliar male. The effect was first noted in 1959 by Hilda M. Bruce, and has primarily been studied in ...

. In 1962, Parkes was awarded the

Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh The Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh is awarded by the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine to a person who has made any highly important and valuable addition to Practical Therapeutics in the previous five ye ...

References

1900 births 1990 deaths {{Biologist-stub