Sydney Brenner was a British scientist born on January 1, 1927. He is known for his groundbreaking work in genetics and molecular biology, particularly for his research on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Brenner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002 for his contributions to understanding the genetic code. His work has had a profound impact on the field of biology, and he is remembered as a pioneer in genetic research. Sydney passed away on April 5, 2019.

"Many have gone on to do important scientific work but all remember those wonderful times when we and our science were young and our excitement in meeting new challenges knew no bounds."

"He told me that Francis Crick and Jim Watson had solved the structure of DNA, so we decided to go across to Cambridge to see it. This was in April of 1953."

"I lived at home and I cycled every morning to the railway station to travel by train to Johannesburg followed by a walk to the University, carrying sandwiches for my lunch and returning in the evening the same way."

"The moment I saw the model and heard about the complementing base pairs I realized that it was the key to understanding all the problems in biology we had found intractable - it was the birth of molecular biology."