Many of you will be saddened to learn that Duncan Shaw died last week. He had been suffering from cancer and had lived with it for the past five years, but maintained good spirits and was in great form to the end.
Duncan was appointed to the University of Aberdeen in 1994, to a Chair in Genetics as one of a group of high quality professorial staff to build capacity in the Institute of Medical Sciences. He started in Marischal College, moving to the IMS when it opened where he remained until his retirement in 2011.
Duncan was a well-recognised geneticist, who worked on genetic diseases such as Huntington’s disease and myotonic dystrophy. He also contributed to fungal genetics with the work of the Aberdeen Fungal Group. He loved cats, and used cat genetics to illustrate general principles to students during lectures, which were much appreciated.
Duncan was a great Francophile, and travelled a lot in France and Italy. Following his retirement, he gained further qualifications at the Open University in mathematics and music. He married Lindsay Fraser in 2013, and in 2019 they moved to Somerset.