Johnjoe McFadden

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Johnjoe McFadden (born 17 May 1956 in Donegal, Ireland) is an Irish / British scientist, academic and writer. He is Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom.

[edit] Life

He was born in Donegal, Ireland but raised in the UK. He has joint British/Irish Nationality.

He obtained his BSc in Biochemistry University of London in 1977 and his PhD at Imperial College London in 1982. He went on to work on human genetic diseases and then infectious diseases, at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, London (1982-84) and St. George's Hospital Medical School, London (1984-88) and then at the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK.

For more than a decade, McFadden has specialised in examining the genetics of microbes such as the agents of tuberculosis and meningitis and invented a test for the diagnosis of meningitis.

He has published more than 100 articles in scientific journals on subjects as wide-ranging as bacterial genetics, tuberculosis, idiopathic diseases and computer modelling of evolution. He has contributed to more than a dozen books and has edited a book on the genetics of mycobacteria.

He produced a widely reported artificial life computer model which modelled evolution in organisms.

He has lectured extensively in the UK, Europe, the USA and Japan and his work has been featured in radio, television and national newspaper articles particularly for the Guardian. His present post, which he has held since 2001, is Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Surrey.

Living in London, he is married and has one son.

[edit] Writing

Professor McFadden wrote the popular science book, Quantum Evolution (see wikipedia article Quantum evolution (alternative) for details of this concept), published in the UK by HarperCollins in 2001, in the US by Norton in 2002 and currently being translated for publication by Kyoritsu Shuppan in Japan in 2003. The book examines the role of quantum mechanics in life, evolution and consciousness.

Professor McFadden regularly writes articles for The Guardian newspaper in the UK, on topics as varied as quantum mechanics, evolution and genetically modified crops, and has reviewed books there. The Washington Post and Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung have also published articles written by him.