Jean Duthie Beggs
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 ...
FRS FRSE
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
DSc DSC may refer to:
Academia
* Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)
* District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India
* Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine
Educational institutions
* Dalton State Col ...
(née Lancaster, born 16 April 1950) is a Scottish geneticist. She is the Royal Society Darwin Trust Professor in the
Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...
Centre for Cell Biology at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
.
Biography
Beggs was born Jean Duthie Lancaster on 16 April 1950 to Jean Crawford (née Duthie) and William Renfrew Lancaster.
She attended
Glasgow High School for Girls
The High School of Glasgow is an independent, co-educational day school in Glasgow, Scotland. The original High School of Glasgow was founded as the choir school of Glasgow Cathedral in around 1124, and is the oldest school in Scotland, and t ...
. She graduated from the
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
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with a BSc (Hons) in
Biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
in 1971,
and received her PhD from the University in 1974. From 1974-1977 she held a postdoctoral position in the Department of Molecular Biology at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
working with Professors
Kenneth
Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byna ...
and
Noreen Murray
Noreen Elizabeth, Lady Murray (; 26 February 1935 – 12 May 2011) was an English molecular geneticist who helped pioneer recombinant DNA technology (genetic engineering) by creating a series of bacteriophage lambda vectors into which gene ...
.
Having received a
Beit Memorial Fellowship for Medical Research, Beggs moved to the
Plant Breeding Institute
The Plant Breeding Institute was an agricultural research organisation in Cambridge in the United Kingdom between 1912 and 1987.
Founding
The institute was established in 1912 as part of the School of Agriculture at the University of Cambridge. R ...
in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, working there for 2 years. In 1979, she began work as a lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry at
Imperial College London
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
. In 1985, Beggs returned to the University of Edinburgh's Molecular Biology department at Edinburgh, where she was appointed Professor of Molecular Biology in 1999.
Her research interests are in RNA splicing.
In 1972 she married Dr Ian Beggs. They have two sons.
Awards and honours
She has been a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
since 1995
and was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
in 1998.
In 2003, she was awarded the Royal Society's
Gabor Medal
The Gabor Medal is one of the medals awarded by the Royal Society for "acknowledged distinction of interdisciplinary work between the life sciences with other disciplines".
The medal was created in 1989 to honor the memory of physicist Denni ...
"for her contributions to the isolation and manipulation of recombinant DNA molecules in a eukaryotic organism, adding a new dimension to molecular and cellular biology".
She received a
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 ...
in the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to science.
She was the Royal Society of Edinburgh Vice President for Life Sciences from 2009 to 2012.
In 2016 she was awarded an honorary DSc by the
University of St Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
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, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
.
In 2018
RNA Society
The RNA Society is a non-profit, international scientific society that serves to facilitate the dissemination of scientific results and concepts in ribonucleic acid (RNA) research. The society was founded in 1993 and currently consists of over 1 ...
Lifetime Achievement Award.
References
1950 births
British geneticists
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Scottish women academics
Female Fellows of the Royal Society
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
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