Jean Golding

Jean Golding (born 22 September 1939)[1] is a British epidemiologist, and founder of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

Background

Born in Cornwall in 1939, Golding struggled with illness throughout her childhood. Her regular stays in hospital led to a delay in the beginning of her education, eventually starting school when she was six years old. Her family moved to Chester, after a period living in Plymouth, and while in Cheshire she contracted polio, causing her to miss another year of school and causing a disability that would remain with her permanently. Despite these interruptions to her schooling, she earned a place studying mathematics at St Anne's College, Oxford in 1958.[2]

ALSPAC

In the late 1980s, Golding founded ALSPAC (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children), also known as Children of the 90s, a birth cohort study that produced a highly detailed dataset of children born in the Avon area in 1991 and 1992. It recorded biological, psychological, social and medical information of this group throughout their childhood and into their adult lives.[3] The dataset is used by researchers across the world,[2] and it includes interviews, questionnaires and biological samples for a period of over 20 years since the children were born. Golding's decision on what data was useful to collect led to it being used for genetic and epigenetic research worldwide.[4]

In 2012 she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her setting up and developing the cohort.[2][5] In 2013, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Bristol, acclaimed as an "exemplar of the qualities and values the institution promotes".[6]

References

  1. ↑ Peters, Tim J. (January 2014). "A Conversation with Jean Golding". Epidemiology. 25 (1): 147–151. doi:10.1097/EDE.0000000000000019. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Gage, Suzi. "Jean Golding: a tale of illness, adventure and statistics". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  3. ↑ "ALSPAC: the avon longitudinal study of parents and children". Imperial College London. School of Public Health. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  4. ↑ "Ada Lovelace Day: Where are the women in science? Right here ... My top 10 female scientists". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  5. ↑ "New Years Honours: Prof Jean Golding appointed OBE". BBC News. 31 December 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "Professor Jean Golding gets honorary degree at Bristol University". BBC News. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/11/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.