The Quick Professorship of Biology is one of the senior
professorships in
biology at the
University of Cambridge.
Frederick James Quick (1836–1902), a prosperous coffee merchant and senior partner in the
London coffee-firm ''Quick, Reek and James'' at the time of his death, bequeathed the majority of his wealth to the
University of Cambridge (where he had been a student at
Trinity Hall, graduating in 1859) to be used in the 'study of vegetable and animal biology'. After much debate, it was decided that a new professorship should be established which would primarily cover the field of
protozoology, and in 1906
George Nuttall became the first holder of the chair.
From 1907 to 1921 there was a laboratory associated with the chair, known as the Quick Laboratory: it was a single room, divided into cubicles, on the ground floor of the
Cambridge Medical School building
The building for the Cambridge Medical School of the University of Cambridge was designed in 1899 by Edward Schroeder Prior. Now the Zoological Laboratory, it is a Grade II listed building.
The Medical School building is Prior's largest work. T ...
. In 1919, after an appeal for funds by the Quick Professor, the
Molteno Institute of Parasitology was established. In 1920 the scope of the chair was broadened to the study of
parasitology
Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it fo ...
. In 1931 the chair was offered to David Keilin for study of
cell biology
Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...
.
Quick Professors
*
George Nuttall (1906)
*
David Keilin (1932)
*
Vincent Brian Wigglesworth (1952)
*
Robin Coombs (1966)
*
Christopher Craig Wylie (1988)
*
Stephen Philip Jackson (1995)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Professor of Biology, Quick
Biology, Quick
Faculty of Biology, University of Cambridge
Biology, Quick
1906 establishments in England