Old Blue Biochemist Donates ‘Single Pea’ Sculpture

On 19 September, we received a visit from Old Blue Nigel Fleming to donate and install a beautiful alabaster sculpture of a single pea which he has sculpted.

Why a pea you might ask? Before Nigel became a sculptor, he had a busy career as a clinical biochemist and entrepreneur, founding Athena Diagnostics and G2B Pharma among other companies. The pea sculpture is a tribute to Gregor Mendel who discovered the fundamental laws of inheritance through his work on pea plants!

Nigel says ‘The pea is often wrongly portrayed as being an unblemished perfect circle; in fact, peas are organic forms with individual character.’

The sculpture will be permanently sited in the Mellstrom Centre. Nigel is pictured here with his sculpture and some of our science scholars who were very keen to meet him!

Nigel founded Athena Diagnostics (sold for $740 million), and G2B Pharma (he invented a nasal adrenaline for anaphylaxis) amongst other companies. In between he has held numerous board positions including 17 years with Impax Labs (now Amneal). He has a Doctorate from Cambridge in clinical biochemistry and did his postdoctoral work at Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School where he was a lecturer in biochemistry and physiology.