Guido Pontecorvo was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1955 for his contributions to the genetics of Drosophilia and the fungus Aspergillus nidulans. Pontecorvo was a leading British geneticist, prominent in the decade preceding the discovery of DNA, who enriched our understanding of genes and whose pioneering work on the parasexual cycle in fungi found application in human somatic cell genetics. Known to friends as Ponte, he had a strong personality. Somewhat irascible but warm, with a wry sense of humor, he made many lifelong friends and acquired a large body of admirers.