Noreen Murray, former EMBL postdoctoral fellow, passed away on 12 May 2011, aged 76.

Noreen, an EMBL alumna and Alumni Association board member from 2003–5, led the development of recombinant DNA technology, research that has had a significant impact on modern biology.

She worked at EMBL between 1980 and 82, where her research on lambda vectors was rapidly adopted by researchers across the world and is still widely used today.

Noreen joined the University of Edinburgh in 1988 and continued to work at the bench long after her formal retirement in 2001.

Over the course of her career, her work was recognised by many prestigious awards, including fellowships of the Royal Societies of Edinburgh and London, membership of EMBO, honorary degrees from a host of world-class universities as well as a CBE for services to science.

Noreen is survived by her husband, Sir Kenneth Murray. She will be remembered with great affection and admiration and will be very sorely missed.