Martin Evans - Career

Career

Evans won a major scholarship to Christ's College, University of Cambridge, at a time when there were many advances in genetics being made. He studied zoology, botany and chemistry, but soon dropped zoology and added biochemistry, finding himself drawn to plant physiology and function. He went to seminars by Sydney Brenner and attended lectures by Jacques Monod. He graduated from Christ's College with a BA in 1963; although, he did not take his final examinations, because he was ill with glandular fever. He decided on a career examining genetic control of vertebrate development. He moved to University College London where he had a fortunate position as a research assistant, learning laboratory skills under Dr Elizabeth Deuchar. His goal at the time was "to isolate developmentally controlled m-RNA". He was awarded a PhD in 1969. He became a lecturer in the Anatomy and Embryology department at University College London, where he did research and taught PhD students and undergraduates. In 1978, he moved to the Department of Genetics, at the University of Cambridge, where his work in association with Matthew Kaufman began in 1980. They developed the idea of using blastocysts for the isolation of embryonic stem cells.

After Kaufman left to take up a professorship in Anatomy in Edinburgh, Evans continued his work, branching out eclectically, "drawn into a number of fascinating fields of biology and medicine." In October 1985, he visited the Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for one month of practical work to learn the most recent laboratory techniques.

In the 1990s, he was a fellow at St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge. In 1999, he became Professor of Mammalian Genetics and Director of the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University, where he worked until he retired at the end of 2007. He became a Knight Bachelor in the 2004 New Year Honours in recognition of his work in stem cell research. He received the accolade from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace on 25 June 2004. In 2007, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies for their work in discovering a method for introducing homologous recombination in mice employing embryonic stem cells. Subsequently, Evans was appointed president of Cardiff University and was inaugurated into that position on 23 November 2009.