Lewis Wolpert
Lewis Wolpert CBE FRS FRSL FMedSci (19 October 1929 – 28 January 2021) was a South African-born British developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster. Wolpert popularized his French flag model of embryonic development, using the colours of the French flag as a visual aid to explain how embryonic cells interpret genetic code for expressing characteristics of living organisms and explaining how signalling between cells early in morphogenesis could inform cells with the same genetic regulatory network of their position and role.
Lewis Wolpert | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 October 1929 |
| Died | 28 January 2021 (aged 91) |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | University of Witwatersrand (BSc) Imperial College London King's College London (PhD) |
| Known for | Positional-value concept in biological development French flag model |
| Children | Daniel Mark Wolpert, Miranda Wolpert |
| Awards | Hamburger prize for education – American Soc.Dev.Biol. Michael Faraday Prize (2000) Royal Medal (2018) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Developmental biology |
| Institutions | University College London (Emeritus Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology) |
| Doctoral students | Jim Smith |
| Website | www |
He wrote several science books, including: Triumph of the Embryo (1991), Malignant Sadness (1999), Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: the Evolutionary Origins of Belief (2006), and How We Live And Why We Die: The Secret Lives of Cells (2009).