H. G. Callan
{{Short description|English zoologist and cytologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
Harold Garnet Callan FRS FRSE (15 March 1917, in Maidenhead – 3 November 1993),{{Cite journal | last1 = Gall | first1 = J. G. | author-link = Joseph G. Gall| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.2003.0006 | title = Harold Garnet Callan. 5 March 1917 -- 3 November 1993 Elected FRS 1963 | journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society| volume = 49 | pages = 107–118 | year = 2003 | doi-access = free }} known as Mick Callan, was an English zoologist and cytologist.{{cite book
|last1 = Waterston
|first1 = Charles D
|last2 = Macmillan Shearer
|first2 = A
|title = Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783-2002: Biographical Index
|url = http://www.rse.org.uk/fellowship/fells_indexp1.pdf
|access-date = 31 May 2011
|volume = I
|date = July 2006
|publisher = The Royal Society of Edinburgh
|location = Edinburgh
|isbn = 978-0-902198-84-5
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061004113545/http://www.rse.org.uk/fellowship/fells_indexp1.pdf
|archive-date = 4 October 2006
}} He is especially remembered for his work on Lampbrush chromosomes.
Life
Callan was born in Maidenhead in Berkshire the son of Garnet George Callan, a naval architect, and Winifred Edith Brazier, a teacher.{{Cite book |url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |title=Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002: Part 1 (A–J) |author=C D Waterston |author2=A Macmillan Shearer |publisher=Royal Society of Edinburgh |isbn=090219884X |date=July 2006 |access-date=18 September 2015 |archive-date=24 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |url-status=dead}}
He was educated at King's College School in Wimbledon, and then won a place at St John's College at Oxford University graduating with a First Class MA in Zoology in 1938.
After initially finding employment at the John Innes Institute in Surrey, he won a scholarship and jumped at the chance of working at the Stazione Zoologica in Naples. This was initially to study sex hormones of the octopus. It was here that he first saw Lampbrush chromosomes, which became his lifetime obsession.{{Cite web |url=http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/obits_alpha/callan_harold.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2 July 2015 |archive-date=2 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702202153/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/obits_alpha/callan_harold.pdf |url-status=dead }}
His studies in Naples were interrupted by the Second World War. Mick initially joined the RAF, rising from Flight Lieutenant to Squadron Leader, as a highly competent airman. He was then transferred into radar research and operation.
After the war, then newly married, he moved to work at University College, London, and from there to Edinburgh to work under the famed biologist Conrad Hal Waddington. Here he worked in the Research Unit of Animal Genetics from 1946 to 1950. In 1950, Callan gained a D.Sc. from the University of Edinburgh.{{Cite journal|last=Callan|first=H. G.|date=1950|title=Studies in nuclear cytology|url=https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/29040|language=en}} He then received a professorship (the Kennedy Chair in Natural History) at St Andrews University, replacing Prof D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, and stayed in this role from 1950 to 1982.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1952 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1963. St Andrews University awarded him an honorary doctorate (DSc) in 1984.
He served as a Trustee of the British Museum from 1963 to 1966.
In 1981, Callan became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.{{cite web | title = About Us | publisher = World Cultural Council | url = http://www.consejoculturalmundial.org/about-us/ | access-date = 8 November 2016}}
He promoted scientific advancement within the Soviet Bloc, travelling three times to Russia and once to China, in the interests of scientific advancement.
His final (post-retiral) research was spent largely with Dr Joe Gall in Baltimore, working on snurposomes and RNA-packaging.
He died at home, Feuchside near Dundee, on 3 November 1993.{{Cite web | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-professor-h-g-callan-1503710.html | title=Obituary: Professor H. G. Callan| website=Independent.co.uk| date=12 November 1993}}
Family
Mick met his wife, Amarillis Maria Speranza Dohrn in Naples and they married there in 1944. They had one son and two daughters.
Publications
- Chromosomes and Nucleoli of the Axolotl, Ambystoma Mexicanum. In: J Cell Sci 1, 1966: 85–108. [http://jcs.biologists.org/content/joces/1/1/85.full.pdf PDF]
- Lampbrush Chromosomes (1986)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/fellowship/obits/obits_alpha/callan_harold.pdf RSE obituary (pdf)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925163114/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/fellowship/obits/obits_alpha/callan_harold.pdf |date=25 September 2006 }}
{{Founding members of the World Cultural Council}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Founding members of the World Cultural Council
Category:People from Maidenhead
Category:Alumni of St John's College, Oxford
Category:Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II
Category:Academics of the University of St Andrews
Category:People educated at King's College School, London