Nobel laureate Paul Nurse gives lecture in Gothenburg

From the beginning organisms evolve from one cell, which divides and becomes new cells that in turn divide. Eventually different types of cells are formed with different roles. For an organism to function and develop normally, cell division has to occur at a suitable pace. Paul Nurse has helped to show how the cell cycle is controlled. Through studies of yeast in the mid-1970s, Nurse was able to show that a special gene plays a decisive role in several of the cell cycle’s phases. In 1987 he identified a corresponding human gene. In 2020 he wrote the book What is Life which has been published in 22 countries.

Paul Nurse was knighted in 1999 and made a Companion of Honour in 2022 for services to science and medicine in the UK and abroad, received the Legion d’honneur in 2003 from France, and the Order of the Rising Sun in 2018 from Japan. He served for 15 years on the UK Council of Science and Technology, advising the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and was a Chief Scientific Advisor for the European Union. He is Director of the Francis Crick Institute in London and Chancellor of the University of Bristol.

Paul Nurse flies gliders and vintage aeroplanes and has been a qualified bush pilot. He also likes the theatre, hill-walking, going to museums and art galleries, and running very slowly.

The lecture is held in English.