… criticism is so characteristic of nomenclature, it’s always so controversial and people get so het up about it. Their gene is like their baby and everyone always agrees that one gene should only have one name but they are sure it should be theirs. Professor Sue Povey, Human Gene Mapping Workshops c.1973-c.1991, pp. 66-67

Professor Sue Povey MD MA (b. 1942) graduated in natural sciences (genetics) at Cambridge in 1964 and qualified in medicine in 1967. She joined the MRC Human Biochemical Genetics unit under Harry Harris in 1970. Having obtained an MD in 1977, she became fascinated by human gene mapping and its many different techniques and was involved in all the HGM meetings between 1975 and 1991. From 1996 till 2007 she was Chair of the HUGO Human Gene Nomenclature Committee with a team supported by the MRC, NIH, and the Wellcome Trust. Elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001, she was Deputy Director of the MRC Unit (1989–2000), then appointed Haldane Professor of Human Genetics at UCL and Editor of the Annals of Human Genetics until her retirement in 2007.

The transcript of the Wellcome Witness seminar Human Gene Mapping Workshops c.1973-c.1991 is available here.

Professor Povey also contributed to Witness seminars on Genetic Testing, available here, and Clinical Genetics in Britain: Origins and development, available here.