Jim Watson (biologist)
James Douglas Watson was a New Zealand bio-technologist and entrepreneur.
After growing up in Te Teko in the Bay of Plenty, Watson did an MSc and then a Phd at the University of Auckland. He then moved to California, working at the Syntex Corporation, Palo Alto and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla and then to Department of Microbiology at the University of California. He returned to Auckland University as Professor of Microbiology.
In 1994 Watson established Genesis Research and Development, an NZX-listed, now defunct, biotechnology company based in Auckland.
After a being diagnosed with prostate cancer, he founded Caldera Health with Richard Forster to specifically focus on the disease.
Watson served as President of the Royal Society of New Zealand between 2004 and 2006; he was proceeded by Sir Gil Simpson and followed by Neville Jordan. Watson died on 13 February 2017 from prostate cancer.
