Gerard Robert Wyatt (3 September 1925, in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

– 28 March 2019, in

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) was an American-Canadian biochemist and entomologist, specializing in insect physiology. He is known for important research on DNA.

Biography

Gerard Wyatt, as a boy of age eight with his family, immigrated to Canada. He attended Victoria College but transferred to the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

, where he graduated in 1945 with a bachelor's degree in zoology. He then worked for a year at the

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

laboratory of Edward Steinhaus, an expert on insect-transmitted pathogens. In 1946 Wyatt returned to Canada to work at the new Laboratory of Insect Pathology in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. From 1947 to 1950 he was a research student in biochemistry at the Molteno Institute in Cambridge, England. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge. In 1950 he returned to Ontario to work at the Laboratory of Insect Pathology. Wyatt was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1954–1955. From 1954 to 1973 he was a member of the faculty of

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. There he did important research on the biochemistry of insect hemolymph and sugars and polysaccharides in insects. From 1973 until his retirement in 1994, he was a professor at

Queen's University at Kingston Queen's University at Kingston, commonly known as Queen's University or simply Queen's, is a public research university in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Queen's holds more than of land throughout Ontario and owns Herstmonceux Castle in East Suss ...

. There he started an African migratory locust facility. (Because of Canada's cold climate, African locusts were not regarded as an invasive species threat.) In 1990 Wyatt became the scientific director of Insect Biotech Canada, with 25 scientists working as a team on insect control. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1981. In 1950 Wyatt married Sarah Silver Morton, who died in 1981. Upon his death he was survived by his second wife, three children from his first marriage, as well as two step-children, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Research on DNA

According to James D. Watson:

References

Sources

Gerard Robert Wyatt's personal papers archive
is available for study at the Wellcome Collection, London (some of the material is digitised and digitally accessible via the website). {{DEFAULTSORT:Wyatt, Gerard R. 1925 births 2019 deaths Canadian biochemists Canadian entomologists University of British Columbia Faculty of Science alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Yale University faculty Academic staff of Queen's University at Kingston Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada American emigrants to Canada