Ian Wilmut facts for kids

Sir Ian Wilmut (born July 7, 1944 – died September 10, 2023) was a British scientist. He was an embryologist, which means he studied how living things develop from tiny cells. He was a leader at the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh.

Sir Ian Wilmut is most famous for leading the team that created Dolly the sheep in 1996. Dolly was the first mammal ever cloned from an adult cell. This was a huge step in science!

He received special awards for his work. In 1999, he was given the OBE. In 2008, he was made a knight, which means he could use "Sir" before his name. He also shared the 2008 Shaw Prize for Medicine and Life Sciences with Keith Campbell and Shinya Yamanaka. This award was for their amazing work on how cells change and develop in mammals.

Early Life and Education

Ian Wilmut was born in Hampton Lucy, England, on July 7, 1944. His father, Leonard Wilmut, was a math teacher. His father had diabetes for many years, which eventually caused him to lose his eyesight.

Young Ian went to the Boys' High School in Scarborough, where his father taught. He first wanted to join the navy. However, he couldn't because he was colour blind. As a teenager, Ian worked on a farm during weekends. This experience made him want to study Agriculture at the University of Nottingham.

In 1966, Ian Wilmut worked for eight weeks in a lab with Christopher Polge. Polge was famous for inventing a way to freeze and preserve cells in 1949. The next year, Wilmut joined Polge's lab to work on his PhD degree at the University of Cambridge. He finished his PhD in 1971. His research was about how to freeze and preserve semen.

Career and Scientific Discoveries

After getting his PhD, Ian Wilmut focused on studying reproductive cells and how embryos develop. He worked at the Roslin Institute, which is a famous research center.

Wilmut led the team that made history in 1996 by cloning Dolly the sheep. Dolly was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. She lived until 2003, when she sadly died from a lung disease.

In 2008, Wilmut announced a new direction for his research. He decided to stop using the cloning method that created Dolly. Instead, he chose to use a different method developed by Shinya Yamanaka. This new method can turn adult skin cells into special cells called pluripotent stem cells. These cells can then become almost any type of cell in the body. This avoids the need to use embryonic stem cells.

Wilmut believed this new method had great potential. He thought it could help treat serious conditions like Parkinson's disease. It could also help patients who have had a stroke or a heart attack.

Even though Wilmut led the team, he later said that his colleague Keith Campbell deserved a lot of credit for Dolly's creation. Wilmut said Campbell deserved "66 per cent" of the invention. He also stated, "I did not create Dolly," meaning it was a team effort. Wilmut's role was as the main supervisor of the project.

Sir Ian Wilmut was an Emeritus Professor at the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine. He was knighted in 2008 for his important contributions to science.

Wilmut also wrote books about his work. In 2000, he published The Second Creation with Keith Campbell and Colin Tudge. In 2006, his book After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning was published, which he wrote with Roger Highfield.

Later Life and Passing

Sir Ian Wilmut passed away on September 10, 2023. He was 79 years old. He died from complications related to Parkinson's disease.

Awards and Recognition

Sir Ian Wilmut received many awards for his scientific achievements:

• In 1998, he received the Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran Award. He also got the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement.
• In 1999, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He also became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
• In 2000, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
• In 2002, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).
• In 2003, he was elected an EMBO Member.
• In 1997, Time magazine named him a runner-up for their "Man of the Year."
• In 2008, he was knighted in the New Year Honours.