£3m Salford ‘megalab’ to be named after Manchester geneticist

A multi-million pound science building opening at the University of Salford this month is set to be named after Sir Walter Bodmer, the German-born geneticist.

Sir Walter, who is a former chancellor of the university, will give his name to the building and officially open the site on February 24.

Dubbed the ‘megalab’, the £3m Cockcroft Building will feature “cutting edge” teaching facilities and an AV system that allows a lecturer to be linked both visually and audibly across its interconnected labs.

Prof. Judith Smith, dean of the university’s School of Environment and Life Sciences, said: “The significant investment demonstrates the university’s commitment to providing the best possible experience for our students in biomedicine, genomics, zoology and environmental health and monitoring by developing outstanding facilities with cutting edge technical equipment.”

Sir Walter is best known as one of the proposers of the Human Genome Project, an international scientific research drive that mapped some 3bn pairs of genes making up human DNA.