Anthony Arie Hyman (born 27 May 1962) is a British scientist, Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), and director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.
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Early life and education
Hyman was born in 1962, the eldest of three children of R. Anthony Hyman, a historian of computing, and Hon. Laura Alice Boyd, daughter of the 6th Baron Kilmarnock. He was educated at William Ellis School and St Marylebone Grammar School, University College London and the University of Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD in 1987.
Career and research
Hyman has focused his career on examining microtubules and how these structures of the cytoskeleton control: cell division, mitotic spindle position, and cell polarity. Hyman's research has identified how microtubules are made into cellular structures and how they are broken down.
While at King's College, Cambridge, Hyman worked under the supervision of John White and was a key researcher in Sydney Brenner's Caenorhabditis elegans group. Using microscopy and microsurgery, he examined the placement of cell axes during early cell division of C.elegans embryos. Hyman presented new findings about mechanisms of rotation by cutting microtubules with a laser beam. Hyman demonstrated that pulling forces acting from the posterior cortex on microtubules drives spindle rotation.