1. Kim Ashley Nasmyth was born on 18 October 1952 and is an English geneticist, the Whitley Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, former scientific director of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, and former head of the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford.
Kim Nasmyth is best known for his work on the segregation of chromosomes during cell division.
Kim Nasmyth attended Eton College, Berkshire, then the University of York, where he studied Biology.
Kim Nasmyth went on to complete his graduate studies in the group of Murdoch Mitchison at the University of Edinburgh.
Kim Nasmyth joined Ben Hall's lab in Seattle as a postdoctoral researcher where he developed ways of cloning genes by complementation in yeast and, in collaboration with Steve Reed, cloned the CDC28 gene from the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Kim Nasmyth was one of the first to demonstrate that gene expression can be regulated through specific control elements which are distant from the start of transcription.
Max Birnstiel invited Kim Nasmyth to join him at the then newly founded Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria, where he was director.
Kim Nasmyth became one of the first three senior group leaders that Birnstiel recruited in 1986.
At the IMP, Kim Nasmyth changed his focus from gene silencing back to cell cycle control.
Kim Nasmyth has since shown that cohesin forms a ring, that sister chromatids are held together within this ring and that they are released by cleavage of cohesin by separase.
In 2006, Kim Nasmyth left the IMP to become head of the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Oxford, a post he held until 2011.
Kim Nasmyth continues to head a research group at this department.
Kim Nasmyth is a member of the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering.
Kim Nasmyth's research has been funded by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and Cancer Research UK.
Kim Nasmyth married Anna Dowson, daughter of Sir Philip Dowson, in 1982 and has two daughters.
Kim Nasmyth enjoys skiing and climbing, a hobby to which he attributes his theory of how cohesin works.
Kim Nasmyth held a large number of shares in his fathers billion dollar company Argus Media until its purchase by General Atlantic in 2016.