Lewis Wolpert

Who is this?

Lewis Wolpert (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. 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).

Career

1. 1929
   Born
2. 2000
   Won Michael Faraday Prize
3. 2015
   Won Waddington Medal
4. 2018
   Won Royal Medal
5. 2021
   Passed away
6. Member of Royal Society
7. Member of European Molecular Biology Organization
8. Member of Royal Society of Literature
9. Won Fellow of the Royal Society
10. Won Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Trivia

• •Place of birth: Johannesburg
• •Citizenship: South Africa, United Kingdom
• •Known as: biologist, university teacher, engineer, cell biologist