Michael Thorndyke#

Obituary, Maurice R. Elphick and Sam Dupont, Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

---

Biography#

Mike Thorndyke, formally at Royal Holloway, University of London and Director of Research in Biological Sciences, was appointed as Director and Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Distinguished Research Chair in Experimental Marine Biology at Kristineberg Marine Research Station in 2002. This has recently been re-named “The Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences- Kristineberg. He is now “Head of International Development at the Sven Lovén Centre.

For many years he has investigated the cellular, molecular and genetic bases of development and adult regeneration in tunicates and echinoderms and has been responsible for the characterisation of new genes and gene networks that regulate both larval development and adult regeneration.

Recently, attention has been focused on the critical issue of ocean acidification where these molecular tools have been instrumental in revealing new avenues for analysis and understanding. He has also been involved in many large-scale European projects and is currently coordinator for ASSEMBLE (http://www.assemblemarine.org) and EuroMarine (http://www.euromarineconsortium.eu) as well as being a member of the Steering Committee for EMBRC (http://www.embrc.eu).

He is also the President of MARS, The European Network of Marine Research Institutes and Stations (http://www.marsnetwork.org).

In 2011 he was awarded the Royal Swedish Academy of Science Linnaeus Gold medal for his contributions to Marine Genomics and the International Development of Marine Research Stations