Roger Burton Land

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 ...

(30 April 194017 April 1988) was a 20th century British animal geneticist. As head of the Edinburgh Research Station he was one of the several scientists responsible for laying the groundwork for the creation of

Dolly the Sheep Dolly (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female Finnish Dorset sheep and the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. She was cloned by associates of the Roslin Institute in Scotland, using the process of nuclear transfer from a ...

. The Roger Land Building within the University of Edinburgh's

King's Buildings The King's Buildings (colloquially known as just King's or KB) is a campus of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Located in the suburb of Blackford, the site contains most of the schools within the College of Science and Engineering, exc ...

complex is named after him.

Life

The Roger Land Building, King's Buildings

He was born in

Shipley, West Yorkshire Shipley is a historic market town and civil parish in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, by the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, north of Bradford. The population of the Shipley ward on Bradford City Council taken at ...

, on 30 April 1940, the son of Betty Newton Burton and her husband Albert Land. He was educated at

Bradford Grammar School Bradford Grammar School (BGS) is a co-educational independent day school located in Frizinghall, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Entrance is by examination, except for the sixth form, where admission is based on GCSE results. The school g ...

, going on to study science at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

. Deciding to specialise in animal genetics in 1962, he did postgraduate studies 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 ...

gaining a diploma in animal genetics and a doctorate

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

presenting the thesis ''"A genetic study of fertility in the mouse"''. In 1966 he joined the Animal Breeding Research Organisation (ABRO). He rose to be director in 1983. On its reorganisation in 1986, he was appointed the head of the Edinburgh Station of the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetic Research (IAPGR), which replaced ABRO. In 1985 he was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were

William G. Hill William George Hill (7 August 1940 – 17 December 2021) was an English geneticist and statistician. He was a professor at University of Edinburgh. He is credited as co-discoverer of the Hill–Robertson effect with his doctoral advisor, Al ...

Noel Farnie Robertson Noel Farnie Robertson (1923–1999) was a Scottish botanist and agriculturist who was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE). Biography Early life Robertson was born on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1923, in Dundalk, Irel ...

Douglas Scott Falconer Douglas Scott Falconer (10 March 1913 in Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire – 23 February 2004 in Edinburgh) was a Scottish geneticist known for his work in quantitative genetics. Falconer's book ''Introduction to quantitative genetics'' was writt ...

, Alan Robertson, Gerald Wiener and

Anne McLaren Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren, (26 April 1927 – 7 July 2007) was a British scientist who was a leading figure in developmental biology. Her work helped lead to human in vitro fertilisation (IVF),

. He died suddenly at his home in

West Linton West Linton ( gd, Liontan Ruairidh) is a village and civil parish in southern Scotland, on the A702. It was formerly in the county of Peeblesshire, but since local government re-organisation in the mid-1990s it is now part of Scottish Borders. M ...

on 17 April 1988, aged 47.

Family

In 1968 he married Moira Mackay and together they had three children: Jonathon, Moira-Jane, and Anne-Marie.

Publications

*''Genetic Study of Fertility in the Mouse'' (1965)

References

1940 births 1988 deaths People from Shipley, West Yorkshire British geneticists Alumni of the University of Nottingham Animal genetics Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Scientists from Yorkshire {{UK-scientist-stub