[2015] student strsip71 (Police Science): Thomas Morgan- Biography

Thomas Morgan

Thomas Hunt Morgan (1886-1945) was a chemist who estsblished and found evidence for the chromosomal theory of inheritance. Morgan was born in Lexington, Kentucky on September 25, 1886. He went to the State University of Kentucky, and in 1886, Morgan went to John Hopkins University, where he did graduate work in zoology. He became a professor at Bryn Mawr College in 1891 and taught biology and natural sciences until 1904. He wrote many books on his research on studies like zoology and embryology, which he would later take more time and focus on in 1928 after he finished his hereditary research. In 1904, he became the Professor of Experimental Zoology at Columbia University in New York.He researhed heredity from 1911-1915 because he developed an interest in species variation.

Biography

In 1911, Morgan began his research by testing the species Drosophila melanogaster, more commonly known as fruit flies, to find out if the chromosomes in an offspring are able to determine the offspring's heredity. With students Alfred Sturtevant, Calvin Bridges, Hermann Muller, and many others, Morgan began his experiment in what he called "The Fly Room." Although he was initially against the idea, as his research expanded and more experiments were conducted, he realized that the chromsomes inside the fruit flies' offspring had genes that would make them stand out and identify who their parents were. This developed the gcreation of the idea of genes. In 1915, Morgan wrote about his findings in a novel called Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity.

Discoveries in Heredity and DNA

Awards

In 1886, Morgan got his B.S. degree at the State University of Kentucky. In 1890, Morgan earned a PhD degree from John Hopkins University. In 1919, Morgan became a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London. In 1924, Morgan recieved the Darwin Medal. For his discoveries in genetic heredity, Morgan won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1933. In 1939, he recieved the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London. In 1981, there was a medal named after him that is given to geneticists who do exceptional research.

Alfred Sturtevant

The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity (1915)

Thomas Morgan in The Fly Room

Calvin Bridges