Artur Jurand FRSE (20 March 1914 – 13 January 2000) was a Polish-born animal geneticist who did important work at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

in the later 20th century. He anglicised his name to Arthur Jurand once settled in Scotland.

Life

The grave of Dr Artur Jurand, Dean Cemetery

He was born Artur Jurand on 30 March 1914 in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

(what is today part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

). He studied Science at the

University of Krakow The Jagiellonian University ( Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

gaining first a BSc then an MSc. As a postgraduate he received his first doctorate (PhD). In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he was imprisoned in a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

. After the war he worked at the Medical Academy in Krakow and from 1956 to 1959 he served as Rector of a college in Krakow. In 1961 he moved to Scotland and in particular to the

, where he received a further doctorate (DSc), presenting the thesis ''"Teratogenic activity of selected drugs. Morphogenesis of the notochord and of the fore-limbs investigated at the light and electron microscope level : structure and development of certain subcellular organelles and cytoplasmic symbionts in Paramecium aurelia".'' He specialised in genetic abnormalities and began lecturing in

teratology Teratology is the study of abnormalities of physiological development in organisms during their life span. It is a sub-discipline in medical genetics which focuses on the classification of congenital abnormalities in dysmorphology. The relate ...

in 1963. He later was appointed Senior Lecturer in Animal Genetics and helped to establish the Institute of Animal Genetics. In the

he worked alongside Charlotte Auerbach and

Francis Albert Eley Crew Francis Albert Eley Crew FRS FRSE LLD (2 March 1886 – 26 May 1973) was an English animal geneticist. He was a pioneer in his field leading to the University of Edinburgh’s place as a world leader in the science of animal genetics. He was t ...

at the Ashworth Buildings. Together they paved the way for animal cloning and the

Dolly the Sheep Dolly (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female Finnish Dorset sheep and the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. She was cloned by associates of the Roslin Institute in Scotland, using the process of nuclear transfer from a ...

project. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1970. His proposers were Geoffrey Beale,

Conrad Hal Waddington Conrad Hal Waddington (8 November 1905 – 26 September 1975) was a British developmental biologist, paleontologist, geneticist, embryologist and philosopher who laid the foundations for systems biology, epigenetics, and evolutionary developm ...

, Alan Robertson and Alan William Greenwood. He retired in 1991 and died on 13 January 2000. He is buried in the section of the first north extension to Dean Cemetery in the west of Edinburgh. The grave lies under a tree close to the main entrance.

Publications

*''The Anatomy of Paramecium Aurelia'' (1969) *''

Paramecium '' ''Paramecium'' ( , ; also spelled ''Paramoecium'') is a genus of eukaryotic, unicellular ciliates, commonly studied as a representative of the ciliate group. ''Paramecia'' are widespread in freshwater, brackish, and marine environments and a ...

: Genetics and

Epigenetics In biology, epigenetics is the study of stable phenotypic changes (known as ''marks'') that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix '' epi-'' ( "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are ...

'', co-written with Geoffrey Beale

Family

His daughter, Maria K Jurand, followed in her father's footsteps, studying genetics at the

and also gaining a doctorate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jurand, Arthur 1914 births 2000 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Polish geneticists Academics of the University of Edinburgh Jagiellonian University alumni Animal genetics People from the Province of Silesia Burials at the Dean Cemetery Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom Scottish geneticists