BIOLOGIST

Oliver Smithies

1925 - 2017

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Oliver Smithies (23 June 1925 – 10 January 2017) was a British-American geneticist and physical biochemist. He is known for introducing starch as a medium for gel electrophoresis in 1955, and for the discovery, simultaneously with Mario Capecchi and Martin Evans, of the technique of homologous recombination of transgenic DNA with genomic DNA, a much more reliable method of altering animal genomes than previously used, and the technique behind gene targeting and knockout mice. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007 for his genetics work. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Oliver Smithies is the 138th most popular biologist (down from 100th in 2019), the 806th most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 670th in 2019) and the 26th most popular British Biologist. Learn more about Oliver Smithies's academic impact at Rankless.

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Among BIOLOGISTS

Among biologists, Oliver Smithies ranks 138 out of 1,097. Before him are John Franklin Enders, Jan Swammerdam, William Jackson Hooker, Lynn Margulis, Gaspard Bauhin, and Johann Friedrich Gmelin. After him are Martin Evans, Gerald Edelman, Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin, Edward B. Lewis, Aimé Bonpland, and Daniel Nathans.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1925, Oliver Smithies ranks 66. Before him are Juan Alberto Schiaffino, Ieng Sary, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Bill Gates Sr., Andrea Camilleri, and Robert Venturi. After him are John Tate, Wong Fei-hung, Jean Tinguely, Michael Halliday, Joshua Lederberg, and Frei Otto. Among people deceased in 2017, Oliver Smithies ranks 55. Before him are Derek Walcott, Ryke Geerd Hamer, Emma Morano, Jonathan Demme, Malcolm Young, and John Surtees. After him are Adnan Khashoggi, Sam Shepard, Hiroto Muraoka, Danielle Darrieux, Elsa Martinelli, and Harry Dean Stanton.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Oliver Smithies ranks 806 out of 8,785. Before him are Ramsay MacDonald (1866), Julian Barnes (1946), Annie Lennox (1954), Michael Powell (1905), Charles Laughton (1899), and Dua Lipa (1995). After him are Martin Evans (1941), Ian Paice (1948), Ronald Fisher (1890), Wentworth Miller (1972), Stephen Graham (1973), and Lady Mary Victoria Douglas-Hamilton (1850).

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Among BIOLOGISTS In United Kingdom

Among biologists born in United Kingdom, Oliver Smithies ranks 26. Before him are Philip Miller (1691), William John Swainson (1789), James Edward Smith (1759), Erasmus Darwin (1731), Reginald Innes Pocock (1863), and William Jackson Hooker (1785). After him are Martin Evans (1941), Charles Scott Sherrington (1952), Henry Walter Bates (1825), William Bateson (1861), Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817), and John Ray (1627).

British born Biologists

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