BIOLOGIST

Oliver Smithies

1925 - 2017

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Oliver Smithies (23 June 1925 – 10 January 2017) was a British-American geneticist and physical biochemist. He is known for introducing starch as a medium for gel electrophoresis in 1955, and for the discovery, simultaneously with Mario Capecchi and Martin Evans, of the technique of homologous recombination of transgenic DNA with genomic DNA, a much more reliable method of altering animal genomes than previously used, and the technique behind gene targeting and knockout mice. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Oliver Smithies has received more than 188,236 page views. His biography is available in 49 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 48 in 2019). Oliver Smithies is the 100th most popular biologist (up from 115th in 2019), the 670th most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 805th in 2019) and the 16th most popular British Biologist.

Memorability Metrics

  • 190k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 62.79

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 49

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 15.29

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.64

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among BIOLOGISTS

Among biologists, Oliver Smithies ranks 100 out of 1,097. Before him are John B. Calhoun, Gabriele Falloppio, Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin, Günter Blobel, Jules A. Hoffmann, and Lynn Margulis. After him are John Franklin Enders, Jean Dausset, Nettie Stevens, Thomas Huckle Weller, Louis Agassiz, and Edward Tatum.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1925, Oliver Smithies ranks 63. Before him are Milton Obote, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Bülent Ecevit, Alain Touraine, Frei Otto, and József Bozsik. After him are Jean Tinguely, Celia Cruz, Hildegard Knef, David Elazar, Michele Ferrero, and William Styron. Among people deceased in 2017, Oliver Smithies ranks 48. Before him are Malcolm Young, Powers Boothe, George A. Romero, Ryke Geerd Hamer, Harry Dean Stanton, and Kenneth Arrow. After him are Jonathan Demme, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, Al Jarreau, Danielle Darrieux, and John Surtees.

Others Born in 1925

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Others Deceased in 2017

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Oliver Smithies ranks 670 out of 8,785. Before him are Sean Bean (1959), John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer (1924), John Snow (1813), Edgar Adrian (1889), Leslie Howard (1893), and Bill Wyman (1936). After him are Thomas Chippendale (1718), Gladwyn Jebb (1900), James Bradley (1693), Brian Cox (1946), Ben Jonson (1572), and George Porter (1920).

Others born in United Kingdom

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Among BIOLOGISTS In United Kingdom

Among biologists born in United Kingdom, Oliver Smithies ranks 16. Before him are John Edward Gray (1800), Robert Edwards (1925), Philip Miller (1691), Archibald Hill (1886), Erasmus Darwin (1731), and Philip Sclater (1829). After him are Julian Huxley (1887), John Gurdon (1933), Charles Scott Sherrington (1952), John Ray (1627), William Carey (1761), and William Bateson (1861).

British born Biologists

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