Profile - Ian Wilmut

Ian Wilmut (Fig. 1) is the joint head of the Department of Gene Expression at the Roslin Institute (Edinburgh, UK) - one of eight research institutes in the UK sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). His main research interests include early mammalian development, embryo manipulation, nuclear transfer and gene targeting in mice, cattle, sheep and pigs. Wilmut grew up in Coventry and read Agricultural Science at the University of Nottingham. He went on to earn a PhD from Darwin College, Cambridge on a post-graduate scholarship, specializing in the deep-freeze preservation of boar semen. He then received a post-doctoral fellowship to research frozen embryos at the ARC Unit of Reproductive Physiology and Biochemistry at Cambridge. In 1973 he was appointed Research Leader at the Animal Breeding Research Organization, which is located just outside Edinburgh, Scotland.