BSDB Wolpert Medal Lecture 2024 "A scientific story: homeosis – diabetes – science communication"

Host: Professor Kate Storey

Venue: MSI-Small lecture theatre 

Jonathan Slack is a very successful scientist indeed he was awarded the BSDB’s Waddington medal in 2002 for his contributions our understanding of mesoderm induction, regenerative biology and his research into cell transdifferentiation. Jonathan has also been hugely influential through his books. It is his mastery in textbook and essential guide writing that won him the Wolpert medal in 2023. 

It is a great pleasure and privilege for us that Jonathan has come to Dundee to give one of his “Wolpert Medal tour lectures”. Jonathan is a fantastic science communicator - his talks are always entertaining, full of fascinating findings and insights and convey a sense of how science is done – he will be talking about homeosis -the transformation of one part of the body into another-, diabetes and science communication. 

Jonathan’s books include From Egg to Embryo (1983/1991), lauded as the best overview of developmental biology and essential reading for all students at the time. Its clarity and breadth are still wonderful. This was followed by Egg and Ego: an almost true story of life in the biology lab (1999), a humous, ironic look at a particular time in science and how people did/do science. More recently, Jonathan published several OUP mini books: A very short introduction to “Stem Cells” (2012) and “Genes” (2014), both with very recent 2nd editions. These semi-lay books are fantastic examples of how to distil lots of information and capture the essence of a topic.  Jonathan is masterful at this. Next came Essential Developmental Biology used by many developmental biology programmes at Universities around the world as their core course textbook.