Roy Markham

Markham was born in London in 1916. His family relocated to Bridge of Allan in Scotland while he was young and returned to London in 1925. He attended several schools in England and in Magdeburg, Germany, but he disliked all of these until he started at St Paul's School in London, aged 15. During his years at St Paul's, he enjoyed his annual summer holidays at his family's house in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. It was there that he met Margaret Mullen, whom he later married. == Research career ==

He joined Christ's College, Cambridge in 1935, specialising in biochemistry for the second part of his degree. He graduated in 1938 with an upper second class degree and became a PhD student in the laboratory of Norman Pirie, with whom he had worked as an undergraduate. For his thesis, which he completed in 1944, he worked on the isolation of plant viruses, including tomato bushy stunt virus and tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). Markham continued working in Cambridge following his PhD, joining the Molteno Institute to work on the biochemistry of RNAs. One of his contemporaries at Cambridge was James Watson, who in his book, The Double Helix, recalls seeking TMV for an experiment: {{Quote He returned to work on the structure of plant viruses at the end of the 1950s. He was particularly interested in using electron microscopy to look at virus architecture. == Virus Research Unit ==

In 1960, Markham became director of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) Virus Research Unit in Cambridge, succeeding Kenneth Smith. == John Innes Institute ==

The John Innes Institute moved from Bayfordbury, Hertfordshire to Norwich, Norfolk in 1967, following its association with the newly-formed University of East Anglia (UEA). Before the institute's move was completed, its director, Kenneth S Doods, resigned to take up a position with the Food and Agriculture Organization in Turkey. Roy Markham was appointed as his successor, and he, along with the Virus Research Unit, moved to Norwich in October 1967. However, under Markham's directorship, the institute grew and was reorganised into four new departments: Cell Biology, Genetics, Applied Genetics and Ultrastructural Studies. == Death ==

Roy Markham suffered a heart attack in 1978, from which he recovered. However, he later developed bowel cancer and died on 16 November 1979. ==References==