Lyon, Mary Frances (1925–)
Lyon, Mary Frances (1925–)
English geneticist. Born May 15, 1925, in Norwich, England; Girton College, BA, 1946, PhD (1950), ScD (1968).
Noted geneticist, especially for research regarding X-chromosome inactivation in mammals (also known as "the Lyon hypothesis"), served at the Medical Research Council (MRC) as a member of the Institute of Animal Genetics scientific staff in Edinburgh (1950–55), as a member of Radiobiology Unit in Harwell, Oxfordshire (1955–90), as head of the Genetics Division (1962–87) and as MRC deputy director (1982–90); became a Royal Society fellow (1973), US National Academy of Sciences foreign associate (1979), American Academy of Arts and Science foreign honorary member (1980),. Received Royal Society's Gold Medal (1984), San Remo (Italy) Prize for Genetics (1985), Gairdner Foundation Award (1985), American Society for Human Genetics' Allan Award (1986) and Wolf Prize for Medicine (1996).