Murdoch Mitchison
{{short description|British zoologist (1922-2011)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2017}}
{{infobox person
| honorific_prefix = Professor The Honourable
| name = Murdoch Mitchison
| image = Murdoch Mitchison.jpeg
| caption = Murdoch Mitchison portrait by the Godfrey Argent Studio
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1922|6|11}}
| birth_place = {{nowrap|Oxford, England}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2011|3|17|1922|6|11}}
| death_place = {{nowrap|Edinburgh, Scotland}}
| resting_place = John Murdoch Mitchison
| education = Winchester College, Hampshire, England
| alma_mater = Trinity College, Cambridge
| father = {{nowrap|Gilbert Richard Mitchison}}
| mother = Naomi Haldane
| spouse = {{marriage|Rosalind Mary Wrong|1947|2002|end=died}}
| children = 4
| occupation = {{nowrap|zoologist}}
| relatives = J.B.S. Haldane (uncle)
John Scott Haldane (grandfather)
Denis Mitchison (brother)
Avrion Mitchison (brother)
{{nowrap|Edward Murray Wrong (father-in-law)}}
}}
John Murdoch Mitchison (11 June 1922, Oxford – 17 March 2011, Edinburgh) was a British zoologist.
Background
=Family=
Mitchison was the son of the Labour politician Dick Mitchison and his wife, the writer Naomi (née Haldane). The biologist J.B.S. Haldane was his uncle, and the physiologist John Scott Haldane was his maternal grandfather. His elder brother is the bacteriologist Denis Mitchison, and his younger brother is the zoologist Avrion Mitchison. His wife was the historian Rosalind Mitchison.
=Education=
Mitchison went to Winchester College and Trinity College, Cambridge, later becoming Professor of Zoology at Edinburgh University in 1963 after working there for a decade. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1978.{{Cite journal|last1=Fantes|first1=Peter|last2=Mitchison|first2=Sally|date=2019|title=J. Murdoch Mitchison. 11 June 1922—17 March 2011|journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|volume=67|pages=279–306|doi=10.1098/rsbm.2019.0006|doi-access=free}}
Career
Considered a pioneer in the area of cellular biology, Mitchison developed the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe as a model system to study the mechanisms and kinetics of growth and the cell cycle.{{cite journal|author1= Fantes PA |author2=Hoffman CS| title = A Brief History of Schizosaccharomyces pombe Research: A Perspective Over the Past 70 Years.|journal = Genetics| volume = 203| issue = 2| pages = 621–9|date=2016| pmid = 27270696| doi =10.1534/genetics.116.189407| pmc = 4896181}} He was an academic advisor to the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology recipient Paul Nurse.
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite web |url=http://www1.bio.ku.dk/english/research/fg/cellecyklus_genomintegritet/history/ |title=Fission yeast as model organism |author=Egel, Richard |publisher=Department of Biology - University of Copenhagen |access-date=2011-01-09}}{{cite web |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2001/nurse-autobio.html |title=Sir Paul Nurse - Autobiography |date=9 January 2011 |work=Nobelprize.org |access-date=2011-01-09}}
{{cite news |author=Alison Shaw |title=Obituary: Professor Murdoch Mitchison ScD, FRS, FRSE, zoologist and biologist |url=http://news.scotsman.com/obituaries/Obituary-Professor-Murdoch-Mitchison-ScD.6740540.jp |newspaper=The Scotsman |date=26 March 2011 |access-date=2011-04-06}}
{{cite news |title=Science Obituaries: Professor Murdoch Mitchison |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/8430463/Professor-Murdoch-Mitchison.html |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=5 April 2011 |access-date=2011-04-06}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchison, John Murdoch}}
Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:People educated at Winchester College