Ron (Queen’s 1963 – 1970) was the Charles Darwin Professor of Embryology at Cambridge from 1983 to 2011 and Honorary Director of the MRC Cancer Cell Unit from 2001 until 2010.
His research centred on DNA replication and transport of molecules in and out of the cell nucleus. DNA replication proteins that he studied have been useful markers for detecting cancer cells. His DPhil with John Gurdon discovered that adult frog tissues, such as skin, contain pluripotent cell nuclei. In the 1980s, two of his papers on radioisotope detection in biochemical samples appeared in the 100 most cited papers in the scientific literature.
He is a former President of the Biochemical Society and of the British Society for Cell Biology and a former Vice-President of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
He has received the Royal Medal of the Royal Society and the Lifetime Achievement Prize of Cancer Research UK. He is a CBE and an Officer in the French National Order of Merit.