biology

Richard Hynes

Richard Hynes is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Richard Hynes rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Olding Hynes (29 November 1944 – 6 January 2026) was a British biologist, who was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Key takeaways

Richard Hynes belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Richard Hynes to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard Hynes from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard Olding Hynes (29 November 1944 – 6 January 2026) was a British biologist, who was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research focused on cell adhesion and the interactions between cells and the extracellular matrix, with a particular interest in understanding molecular mechanisms of cancer metastasis. Hynes is regarded as a co-discoverer of fibronectin molecules, a discovery that has been listed by Thomson Scientific ScienceWatch as a Nobel Prize candidate.

Education Hynes earned his B.A. in 1966 and M.A. in 1970 from the University of Cambridge, both in biochemistry. He received his Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund from 1971 to 1974.

Academic career Hynes became a faculty member in the biology department at MIT in 1973 and was promoted to full professor in 1983. He was awarded Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator status in 1988. He served as the head of the biology department from 1989 to 1991 and as the director of the MIT Center for Cancer Research from 1991 to 2001, and became the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research and affiliated with the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research in 1999. In 2004 he became an associate member of the Broad Institute. He served as the president of the American Society for Cell Biology in 2000. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the Wellcome Trust beginning in 2007. He also served on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2012. Hynes also published on public policy and participated in the development of United States research guidelines for stem cell research, particularly embryonic stem cells.

Death Hynes died on 6 January 2026, at the age of 81.

Awards and honours Guggenheim Fellowship (1982) Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1987) Fellow of the Royal Society (1989) Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1994) Member of the Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine) (1995) Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1996) Canada Gairdner International Award (1997) E.B. Wilson Medal (2007) Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Medical Research Award (2007) Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy (2014) Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology (2016) David Rall Medal (2017) Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2022)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Hynes

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Hynes claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Richard Hynes before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Richard Hynes ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Richard Hynes

In research: Richard Hynes appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Richard Hynes in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Richard Hynes is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1944 births, 2026 deaths, Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Hynes outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Richard Hynes in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Hynes means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Richard Hynes out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Hynes in simple terms?

Why does Richard Hynes matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Richard Hynes?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Richard Hynes.