Sir Kenneth Murray and Lady Noreen Parker Murray Collection

Sir Kenneth "Ken" Murray FRS FRSE (born 30 December 1930) is an English molecular biologist. His wife was Lady Noreen (née Parker), also a biologist. Together the team of Kenneth Murray and Noreen Murray developed the vaccine against hepatitis B.

He was appointed, in 1967, to an academic position at Edinburgh University in what was then the only Department of Molecular Biology in the country,Murray is one of the founders of Biogen, and the founder/chairman of the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh, charity supporting young biologists in their doctoral studies.

Amongst the many honors and awards Murray has received in recognition of his outstanding scientific achievements are, election to the Royal Society in 1979, the award of the Willem Meindart de Hoop Prize in 1983 and the Saltire Society (Edinburgh) Scientific Award in 1992. He was made a Knight Bachelor for his contributions to science in 1993. He was also presented with one of the first Royal Medals of the Royal Society of Edinburgh by the Queen at Holyrood Palace.

Lady Noreen Parker received her Pd.D. from the University of Birmingham in 1959. She worked at Stanford University, Cambridge University, and the Medical Research Council (UK) before first joining the University of Edinburgh faculty in 1967.[3] She briefly moved to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory from 1980–82, but returned to Edinburgh where she was awarded a personal chair in 1988.[3] She was president of the Genetical Society, vice president of the Royal Society, and a member of the U.K. Science and Technology Honors Committee.

Lady Murray was elected to the Royal Society in 1982 and the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1989. She has received honorary degrees from the University of Warwick, the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, the University of Birmingham, and Lancaster University.[3][5] She has also been given the Fred Griffith Review Lectureship of the Society for General Microbiology and in 1989, for her work with lambda phage, the Gabor Medal of the Royal Society. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honors list for 2002.She died on May 12, 2011.