Shelby Bradford in The Scientist:
Ian Wilmut, the embryologist most known for cloning Dolly the sheep, passed away at age 79 from complications of Parkinson’s Disease, according to news from the University of Edinburgh. Wilmut’s work represented a milestone in the field of regenerative medicine and stem cell research.
Born to teachers in a Warwickshire village in 1944, Wilmut was originally interested in agriculture but later switched to animal science studies at the University of Nottingham. After a summer job with biologist Christopher Polge at the University of Cambridge, Wilmut became fascinated with cryopreservation. He pursued a doctoral degree studying freezing techniques for animal semen and embryos with Polge. Wilmut and Polge applied the knowledge they gained to help the first live birth from a frozen embryo: a calf named Frostie. In 1973, Wilmut joined the Animal Breeding Research Organization , which would later become the Roslin Institute. He initially worked on genetically modifying sheep to produce milk that contained therapeutic proteins. This led him to search for a more efficient method of sheep breeding using a nuclear transfer method, or animal cloning.
More here.