jean golding

Science

1939 -

Suggested by Luke Whitford

“Jean Golding was born in Hayle. Her studies have resulted in new discoveries about the relationships between genetics and asthma, peanut allergies, obesity, sociological and psychological behaviours, as well as diet and more.”

From wikipedia:
Jean Golding OBE, FMedSci, is an epidemiologist and founder of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. She is Emeritus Professor of Paediatric & Perinatal Epidemiology at the University of Bristol.

Despite interruptions to schooling due to illness, Golding won a place to study mathematics at St Anne's College, Oxford in 1958. She began her career reading Mathematics at a time when women were outnumbered ten to one by men.  She developed a keen interest in epidemiology (the study of health in a population) and went on to do a PhD in Medical Statistics at University College London.

In 1980 she moved to the University of Bristol where she was Director of the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC). This led to the founding of ALSPAC (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children), also known as Children of the 90s, a birth cohort study. Its aim is to determine the ways in which different aspects of the environment influence child health and development, and how these may be influenced by genetics. The huge dataset this has created and which continues to be added to, is used by researchers worldwide. It includes interviews, questionnaires, biological samples, hands-on testing and linkage to educational and other records. Golding's decision on what data was useful to collect has led to it being used for genetics and epigenetics research worldwide.

Golding has continued to carry out research on the ALSPAC resource into her retirement, concentrating since 2016 on Ways in which the aspect of personality known as Locus of Control of the parents and children influences behaviours, and long term outcomes; Ways in which environmental exposures to grandparents and great-grandparents are associated with outcomes in grandchildren and great-grandchildren, including of autism, and obesity; Long-term outcomes of offspring relating to various exposures of the mother including medications, heavy metals and aspects of the diet.