Biography of A. H. Sturtevant

Name: A. H. Sturtevant
Birth Date: November 21, 1891
Death Date: April 5, 1970
Place of Birth: Jacksonville, Illinois, United States
Nationality: American
Gender: Male
Occupations: geneticist

A. H. Sturtevant

Alfred Henry Sturtevant (1891-1970) was a geneticist and National Medal of Science winner whose principles of gene mapping greatly affected the field of genetics.A. H. Sturtevant, an influential geneticist and winner of the National Medal of Science in 1968, is best known for his demonstrations of the principles of gene mapping. This discovery had a profound effect on the field of genetics and led to projects to map both animal and human chromosomes. He is the unacknowledged father of the Human Genome Project, which is attempting to map all of man's 100,000 chromosomes by the year 2000. Sturtevant's later work in the field of genetics led to discovery of the first reparable gene defect as well as the position effect, which showed that the effect of a gene is dependent on its position relative to other genes. He was a member of Columbia University's "Drosophila Group," whose studies of the genetics of fruit …showed first 150 words…

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…showed last 150 words…of these possible cataclysmic hazards before any further bomb testing was performed. One of his last published journal articles, written in 1956, described a mutation in fruit flies that, by itself, was harmless but which proved lethal in combination with another specific mutant gene.Sturtevant married Phoebe Curtis Reed in 1923, and the couple honeymooned in Europe, touring England, Norway, Sweden, and Holland. The Sturtevants had three children. Sturtevant was named professor emeritus at Caltech in 1962. He spent the better part of the early 1960s writing his major work, A History of Genetics, which was published in 1965. In 1968, he received the prestigious National Medal of Science for his achievements in genetics. He died on April 5, 1970, at the age of 78. Further Reading Carlson, E. A., The Gene: A Critical History, Sanders, 1971.Beadle, G. W. "A.H. Sturtevant," American Philosophical Society Yearbook, 1970, pp. 166-171.Emerson, S., "Alfred Henry Sturtevant," Annual Review of Genetics, 1970, vol. 5, pp. 1-4.

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