Papers of Guido Pellegrino Arrigo Pontecorvo, lectures and broadcasts

Lectures cover Pontecorvo's two main interests: genetics and alpine plants. He gave lectures in the UK for for university departments and society meetings, as well as notable lectures such as the Leeuwenhoek Lecture in 1962, the first Leslie Clarence Dunn Lecture in 1976, and the Weigle Lecture in 1984. He also gave lectures on his research trips abroad to Italy, India and the United States. Titles of Pontecorvo's bundles of lectures have been replicated in the different lecture series as follows:

Lectures and broadcasts, 1940s-1950s;

Lectures and broadcasts, 1950s-1960s;

Leeuwenhoek Lecture material, 1962-1963;

Various lectures given in the UK and on research trips abroad between 1970-1978;

Lectures on somatic cell genetics and others, 1970s;

Weigle Lecture material, 1984;

Lecture for University of Leicester Silver Jubilee Symposium, 1990;

Lectures on apline plants and ecology, 1970s-1980s.

This description is part of the main Guido Pontecorvo collection which has been divided into the following sections, each with its own separate description:
UGC 198/1, biographical material;
UGC 198/2, career and appointments;
UGC 198/3, genetics research correspondence;
UGC 198/4, alpine research correspondence;
UGC 198/5, material relating to research trips abroad;
UGC 198/6, research slides;
UGC 198/7, publications;
UGC 198/8, lectures and broadcasts;
UGC 198/9, personal and family material;
UGC 198/10, personal photographs and slides.

This material was kept in the original order. Pontecorvo had arranged related lecture notes together in separate files and this arrangement has been maintained. These are arranged chronologically by record series.

Guido Pellegrino Arrigo Pontecorvo (1907-1999), who liked to be known by his nickname, Ponte, was an Italian geneticist who became the University of Glasgow's first Professor of Genetics in 1955, and has been described as "one of the founding fathers of modern genetics". He endowed prizes and scholarships for students at the University and the Genetics Building was named for him in 1995. Born and educated in Pisa, Pontecorvo was forced to leave Italy in 1938 and settled in Scotland. He was appointed a lecturer in Genetics at the University's Zoology Department in 1945, and a new department was set up in the Anatomy laboratories of the Anderson College building soon afterwards. He became a Reader in 1952, three years before his appointment to the new Chair. He left Glasgow in 1968 to take a post at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund's laboratories in London. Pontecorvo was one of the leading figures of his day in the study of of cell genetics. For a more detailed biography see the full Pontecorvo collection description.

Different versions of lecture notes for some of the lectures described in this series can also be found in the series of Pontercorvo's publications at GB 0248 UGC 198/7.

This material has been appraised in line with standard GB 0248 procedures. Duplicates have been removed.