Sir Walter Bodmer to open £3m 'Megalab'
Thursday 11 February 2016
A £3m STATE-OF-THE-ART Environment and Life Sciences laboratory at the University of Salford is to be named after geneticist Sir Walter Bodmer.
Sir Walter, one of the proposers of the Human Genome Project in the 1980s, and former research director of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, will officially open the laboratory on Wednesday, February 24, 2016.
The Human Genome Project – which mapped some 3 billion pairs of genes which make up our DNA – is considered the most significant advance in the biosciences in a century.
The new laboratories in the Cockcroft Building are equipped as a world-class teaching facility, and feature an AV system that allows the lecturer to be linked visually and audibly with interconnected labs.
Chancellor
Known colloquially as the ‘Megalab’, they will be named in honour of the geneticist, who is a former University of Salford Chancellor.
The opening of this new laboratory follows the School’s impressive NSS results earlier this year which saw overall student satisfaction climb 9 percentage points to 87 per cent.
Professor Judith Smith, Dean of School of Environment and Life Sciences said: “The significant investment demonstrates the University’s commitment to providing the best possible experience for our students in biomedicine, genomics, zoology and environmental health and monitoring by developing outstanding facilities with cutting edge technical equipment."
The formal opening is at 5.30pm (starting in the Lady Hale Building) will be followed light refreshments and canapes.
To register to attend this event please do so here. If you have any questions please contact Sarah Christie, Events Officer at s.christie@salford.ac.uk or on 0161 295 5275.
See the Walter Bodmer Laboratory from a student viewpoint https://vimeo.com/147702759
About Sir Walter Bodmer
A Manchester Grammar School graduate, Walter Bodmer won a scholarship to read Mathematics at Cambridge where he also completed a PhD in population genetics. His post-doctoral work in molecular biology led to a position in at Stanford University Medical School and he later became Professor of Genetics at Oxford University.
Walter has held prestigious positions including Director General of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Principal of Hertford College Oxford and Fellow of the Royal Society. He was knighted in 1986 for his contributions to science, notably the instigation of the Human Genome Project and was the second President of the Human Genome Organisation.
A former President of the British Medical Association, Sir Walter is a pioneer in the popular promotion of science.
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