Alison Woollard (born 1968) is a British biologist. She is a lecturer in the Department of

Biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Alison Woollard's publications in Google Scholar
/ref> where she is also a Fellow of

Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The col ...

Early life

Woollard was born in 1968 in

Kingston-upon-Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

Education

Woollard was educated at

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, gaining her undergraduate degree in

Biological Sciences Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

in 1991 and gained her

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

fission yeast ''Schizosaccharomyces pombe'', also called "fission yeast", is a species of yeast used in traditional brewing and as a model organism in molecular and cell biology. It is a unicellular eukaryote, whose cells are rod-shaped. Cells typically m ...

supervised by Paul Nurse in 1995.

Research

Woollard moved to the

Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

in Cambridge in 1995. Her research focuses on developmental biology of the nematode model organism '' Caenorhabditis elegans'' particularly RUNX genes. She is currently the Academic Champion for Public Engagement with Research at the University of Oxford, a post which she has held since 2017.

Awards and honours

In 2013 Woollard presented the

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic each, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825, missing 1939–1942 because of the Second World War. The lectures present sc ...

. She has also been interviewed on the BBC radio programme

The Life Scientific ''The Life Scientific'' is a BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, dra ...

References

External links

*
Life Fantastic videos

2013, presented by Alison Woollard English biologists British women biologists Living people 1968 births Alumni of the University of London Alumni of the University of Oxford Fellows of Hertford College, Oxford People from Kingston upon Thames Academics of the University of Oxford British women scientists {{UK-scientist-stub