[1] The decision to create the position came at a time when notable geneticists at the university – the ecological geneticist Edmund Brisco Ford and the Sherardian Professor of Botany Cyril Darlington – had retired or were about to retire.
But instead, a human geneticist, Walter Bodmer, who was working in areas including the HLA system (encoding the major histocompatibility complex proteins) and human somatic cell genetics,[3] was chosen.
[4] He moved to Oxford in 1970 and was asked to decide which department genetics should be allied with - Zoology, Botany or Biochemistry.
For Sir Walter, the obvious choice was the Department of Biochemistry since his work was increasingly moving towards that discipline.
[4] Since the creation of the chair, genetics has expanded and diversified across the University of Oxford with the arrival of David Weatherall, Kay Davies, Peter Donnelly and many others.