About Ian Wilmut
Sir Ian Wilmut (7 July 1944 – 10 September 2023) was an English embryologist and the chair of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He was the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly. Wilmut was appointed OBE in 1999 for services to embryo development and knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours. He, Keith Campbell and Shinya Yamanaka jointly received the 2008 Shaw Prize for Medicine and Life Sciences for their work on cell differentiation in mammals. == Early life and education == Wilmut was born in Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire, England, on 7 July 1944. Wilmut's father, Leonard Wilmut, was a mathematics teacher who suffered from diabetes for fifty years, which eventually caused him to become blind. The younger Wilmut attended the Boys' High School in Scarborough, where his father taught. His early desire was to embark on a naval career, but he was unable to do so due to his colour blindness. As a schoolboy, Wilmut worked as a farm hand on weekends, which inspired him to study Agriculture at the University of Nottingham. In 1966, Wilmut spent eight weeks working in the laboratory of Christopher Polge, who is credited with developing the technique of cryopreservation in 1949.
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