Mendel University in Brno awarded an honorary scientific degree doctor honoris causa to the English geneticist, cell biologist and microbiology professor Sir Paul Maxime Nurse. The British scientist’s many accomplishments include the 2001 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for his discovery of key regulators of the cell cycle. The award ceremony for Sir Nurse took place in the assembly hall of Mendel University in Brno on 31 January 2020.
“The awarding of an honorary doctorate to such an important scientist, who is also a peeson who actively participates in public life, symbolically concluded the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Mendel University in Brno,” said Danuše Nerudová, Rector of Mendel University in Brno.
Professor Nurse is the Director of the Francis Crick Institute in London, a leading scientific institution active in the field of biomedicine. Nurse himself is currently managing the Cell Cycle Laboratory at this institute. In the past, he functioned as President of Rockefeller University in New York. Besides that, he served as President of the British Royal Society, of which he has been a member since 1989. He has received numerous awards and honorary doctorates from a number of universities for his scientific work. He was also given a knighthood for his merits in the development of science.
Mendel University has been operating since 1919. It proudly bears the name of Gregor Johann Mendel, the founder of modern genetics.