Wiener, Gerald, 1926-2023 (geneticist; former deputy director of the Animal Breeding Research Organisation)
Dates
- Existence: 1926 - 2023
Biography
Gerald Wiener was born in Germany 1926. At aged 12, he arrived in the UK as part of the Kindertransport as a refugee from Nazi-occupied Germany. After attending school in Oxford, Wiener worked on farms for a couple of years before beginning a degree in Agriculture in 1944 at the University of Edinburgh.
In 1947, following his degree, Wiener joined the staff of the newly-formed National Animal Breeding Genetics and Research Organisation (NABGRO, later ABRO). He was the first junior to be appointed to the scientific staff at the headquarters,which was then based at house called 'Glenbourne', about a mile outside the city. Wiener's early years at NABGRO were spent in operational research, which was later submitted for a PhD. He began to undertake research into causes of variation (genetic, maternal, and environmental) in performance of cattle but in much greater detail with long-term experiments in sheep. This led to the significant discovery that the absorption of copper (an essential trace element) from the gut was in part genetically controlled. This research stretched over more than ten years and the discovery received much scientific interest and attention, as well as providing the basis for Wiener's degree of DSc and his election to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Following his retirement Wiener undertook a variety of consultancies for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and the British Council, most notably in Ethiopia, India and China. In 1988, he became involved in a collaborative project in north-western China on the yak, work which continues to this day. Wiener is the senior author on The Yak, a standard textbook on the animal.
Wiener is honorary Professor of two Chinese Universities, a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Society of Biology, and an honorary member of the British Society of Animal Science whose scientific Journal he edited for 25 years.
Wiener has published two textbooks, chapters in others, and over a hundred papers in scientific journals.
Gerald Wiener died peacefully at home on Thursday 28th September 2023.
Found in 12 Collections and/or Records:
A comparison of inbred and outbred sheep on two planes of nutrition. 4. A note on the effects on some blood constituents before and after exposures to acute cold or heat, 1988
Located in I.A.P.G.R-E.R.S. Staff Papers 1988. Part 2.
An association between the concentration of copper in whole blood and haemoglobin type in sheep, 1973
Located in A.B.R.O. Reprints 1973 - 1974. Volume 8 of 19.
Maternal and lamb breed interactions in the concentration of copper in tissues and plasma of sheep, 1977
Located in A.B.R.O. Reprints 1977. Volume 11 of 19.
Relationships between haemoglobin type and copper concentrations in whole blood and its components in sheep of different breeds, 1974
Located in A.B.R.O. Reprints 1973 - 1974. Volume 8 of 19.
Relationships between swayback incidence and concentration of copper in the blood of sheep of different breeds, 1971
Located in A.B.R.O. Reprints 1971 - 1972. Volume 7 of 19.
Retention of copper in the liver of sheep genetically selected for high and low concentrations of copper in plasma, 1985
Located in A.B.R.O. Reprints 1985. Volume 19 of 19.
Selection for plasma copper concentrations within haemoglobin type in sheep, 1976
Located in A.B.R.O. Reprints 1976. Volume 10 of 19.
Selenium concentration in the blood and wool and glutathione peroxidase activity in the blood of three breeds of sheep, 1983
Located in A.B.R.O. Reprints 1983. Volume 17 of 19.
The concentration of minerals in the blood of genetically diverse groups of sheep. IV. Factors influencing seasonal changes in copper concentration, 1970
Located in A.B.R.O. Reprints 1969 - 1970. Volume 6 of 19.
The concentration of minerals in the blood of genetically diverse groups of sheep. V: Concentrations of copper, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and sodium in the blood of lambs and ewes, 1971
Located in A.B.R.O. Reprints 1971 - 1972. Volume 7 of 19.
Additional filters:
- Subject
- Sheep 10
- Sheep breeds 2
- Abnormalities, Animal 1
- Animal Breeding 1
- Cold--Physiological effect 1