Lorna Casselton Memorial Lectures
The Lorna Casselton Memorial Lecture Series was established in 2014 through the support of friends and colleagues from around the world to commemorate Lorna Casselton CBE FRS (1938-2014), Professor Emeritus of Fungal Genetics at the University of Oxford and Honorary Fellow of St Cross College. The Series brings an eminent scientist to Oxford each year to give a keynote address and present groundbreaking research in a biological or human-centred area.
Professor Lorna Casselton specialised in fungal genetics and earned a reputation for her expertise in the sexual development of fungi, contributing to more than one hundred publications on the topic. She was particularly distinguished for her genetic and molecular analysis of the mushroom Coprinus cinereus, for which she determined the genetic basis of mating by identifying the genes involved in fungi recognising mating partners. This had been a longstanding unsolved mystery of how fungi were able to recognise appropriate mating partners given the very large number of different sexes of fungi species. Her pioneering research ensured her status as one of the most important fungal biologists over several decades.
From 1993 to 2003 Lorna was a Fellow at St Cross; during this time she was appointed Professor of Fungal Genetics at the University of Oxford in 1997, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1999 and awarded a CBE in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to fungal genetics and international science. During her tenure as Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society from 2006-2011, Lorna oversaw the Society’s programme of international activities and its relations with scientific academies and bodies across the globe. It was in this role and in related professional activities that she was able to pursue her interests as a very active supporter of women in science and to promote excellence in scientific research in the developing world. Lorna was awarded honorary doctorates from Queen Mary, University of London in 2009 and from University College London in 2010.
In addition to her scientific ventures abroad, Lorna greatly enjoyed travelling and experiencing the local culture in each country that she visited, as well as learning to fly a glider late in life. Following her retirement, Lorna was elected to an Honorary Fellowship at St Cross in 2013. On a personal level she was a lively and enthusiastic scientist with charm and good humour, much admired by her peers and students alike. Following her death in 2014, Lorna's legacy lives on at the College: in addition to the annual Memorial Lecture named after her, there is also the Lorna Casselton Memorial Scholarship in Plant Sciences funded by the Lorna Casselton Memorial Fund, established through bequests from Lorna and her husband, which is open to students studying for a DPhil research degree in any aspect of plant biology. The Fund supports both the scholarship and the lecture.
