My parents were neither wealthy nor academic, but we lived comfortably and they were always extremely supportive of my academic efforts and aspirations, both at school and university.

At age 11 in 1960, I moved to an academic state secondary school, Harrow County Grammar School for Boys.

My main efforts focussed on trying to identify the rate controlling steps during the cell cycle. Crucial for this analysis were wee mutants that were advanced prematurely through the cell cycle and so divided at a reduced cell size.

My parents were born in Norfolk and spent their early years working in the big houses of that rural English county, my mother as a cook and my father as a handyman and chauffeur.

Luckily my parents were not against my ambition, they've always been very supportive. But they were adamant that I went to university first.

Neither the University of Michigan nor its law school uses a quota system.