Norma Ford Walker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Norma Henrietta Carswell Ford[1] September 3, 1893 |
| Died | August 9, 1968 (aged 74) |
| Citizenship | Canadian |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto |
| Known for | Genetic Counseling, Research on the Dionne Quintuplets |
| Spouse | Edmund Murton Walker |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Medical Genetics, Entomology, Dermatoglyphics |
| Institutions | Toronto Hospital for Sick Children |
| Thesis | A Comparative Study of the Abdominal Musculature of Orthopteroid Insects (1923) |
| Doctoral advisor | Edmund Murton Walker |
| Doctoral students | Irene Uchida |
Norma Ford Walker (September 3, 1893 – August 9, 1968) was a Canadian scientist who pioneered the development of medical genetics as a research field. Though she began her academic career as an entomologist, working as an invertebrate zoologist at the University of Toronto, she became interested in medical genetics in the 1930s, and researched the medical genetics of the then famous Dionne Quintuplets. She was an original founding member of the American Society of Human Genetics and between 1947 and 1962, was the first director of the Department of Genetics at what was then the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children.[2] She was a strong advocate for women in science, and supervised many women would later become the first appointed department heads of human genetics at many Canadian universities.[2] Her academic career spanned six decades and she published prolifically in both human genetics and entomology. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1958.
- ^ Miller, Fiona (2008). "Remembering Norma Ford Walker (1893–1968)". Genome. 51 (12): vii–viii. doi:10.1139/g08-915.
- ^ a b Miller, Fiona (2002). "The Importance of Being Marginal: Norma Ford Walker and a Canadian School of Medical Genetics". American Journal of Medical Genetics. 115 (2): 102–110. doi:10.1002/ajmg.10544. PMID 12400056.