12 Facts About Vernon Ingram

Vernon Ingram received a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1945 and a PhD in organic chemistry in 1949.

In 1952, Vernon Ingram returned to England and started working at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, studying protein chemistry.

Vernon Ingram used electrophoresis and chromatography to show that the amino acid sequence of normal human and sickle cell anaemia haemoglobins differed due to a single substituted amino acid residue.

Vernon Ingram won the William Allan Award from the American Society of Human Genetics in 1967.

Vernon Ingram joined the MIT faculty in 1958, intending to stay for only one year.

Vernon Ingram found that he enjoyed it there so much that he stayed on.

Vernon Ingram was interested in embryonic haemoglobin and how it differed from that of adults.

Vernon Ingram's interest was sparked by the work his second wife, Elizabeth, was doing with intellectually disabled people in the Boston area.

Vernon Ingram had heard that Down syndrome was a disease of the neurofilaments; this turned out not to be the cause, but it was noted that people with Down syndrome did develop Alzheimer's Disease by the time they were 40.

Vernon Ingram was Director of the Experimental Study Group, an alternative undergraduate education community at MIT, from 1989 to 1999.

Vernon Ingram was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002.

Vernon Ingram died in Boston, Massachusetts, on 17 August 2006 of injuries stemming from a fall.