This week: a pioneering biologist, an acclaimed Lebanese feminist, and a master of the Irish pipes
THE scientist Professor Sir John Sulston, who has died aged 75, was a biologist known for his pioneering work on the human genome.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology in 2002, along with two of his former colleagues, for work aiding the understanding of how genes control cell division and cell death in organisms.
Sir John founded the Sanger Institute - then called the Sanger Centre - at Hinxton, near Cambridge, and was director between 1992 to 2000. It has gone on to become one of the leading centres for genome research in the world.
Sir John led the 500-strong Sanger Centre team which, as part of the international Human Genome Project, sequenced a third of the human genome - the complex pattern of chemicals that makes up our DNA. Part of the genome consists of genes which contain all the coded instructions for creating a human being.
Sir John was born on March 17 1942 and showed an interest in the workings of organisms from an early age. He completed his undergraduate degree in organic chemistry at Pembroke College at Cambridge University in 1963, and went on to join the department of chemistry to carry out a PhD.
At the time of his death, he was professor and chairman of the Institute of Science, Ethics and Innovation at Manchester University.
THE author and feminist Emily Nasrallah, who has died aged 87, was celebrated for her writing about Lebanon's civil war from the 1970s to 1990. She was the author of several books for adults and children and was awarded many prizes for her work.
Born in the village of Kfeir in Mount Lebanon in 1931 and brought up in Beirut, Nasrallah began her career as a journalist and published her first book, Birds of September, in 1962. She was among several women writers who stayed in Lebanon during the civil war and wrote about the conflict.
Sirene Harb, an associate professor of comparative literature at the American University of Beirut, said Nasrallah's feminism was reflected in her representation of strong and rebellious female characters, and role models who challenged patriarchal traditions.
"You really travel through the pages," said Harb. "It's not anymore a book that you have in front of you, it's something you have inside of you."
THE Irish musician Liam O’Flynn, who has died aged 72, was an uilleann pipe player known for his work with the folk band Planxty and his collaborations with pop stars including Kate Bush.
He was born into a a musical family in Co Kildare and formed Planxty in 1972 with Christy Moore, Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny; he went on to be acknowledged as one of Ireland's greatest exponents of the uilleann pipes.
After the band broke up in the mid-1980s, O’Flynn worked with Kate Bush on her 1985 classic album Hounds of Love); he also worked with Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler, among others, as well as working with the poet Seamus Heaney and with the composer Shaun Davey on the orchestral work The Brendan Voyage, which was inspired by Saint Brendan’s sixth century Atlantic crossing to America.
O'Flynn joined the original three members of Planxty for a reunion in October 2003 and they played their last gig in 2005.
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