THOMAS HUNT MORGAN

            WHO IS THOMAS MORGAN?

Thomas Hunt Morgan was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist, embryologist, and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries explaining the role that the chromosome plays in heredity.He born in September 25, 1866 (Lexington,Kentucky) and died in December 4, 1945 (Pasadena,California).

                  HIS CAREER AND LIFE 

In 1890, Morgan was appointed associate professor (and head of the biology department) at Johns Hopkins’ sister school Bryn Mawr College.He taught all morphology-related courses there. Although an enthusiastic teacher, he was most interested in research in the laboratory. During the first few years at Bryn Mawr, he produced descriptive studies of sea acorns, ascidian worms and frogs.

In 1894, Morgan was granted a year’s absence to conduct research in the laboratories of Stazione Zoologica in Naples.He worked on sea urchin and ctenophore eggs.

When Morgan returned to Bryn Mawr in 1895, he was promoted to full professor.

Morgan’s main lines of experimental work involved regeneration and larval development. He wrote his first book, The Development of the Frog’s Egg (1897). He looked at grafting and regeneration in tadpoles, fish and earthworms; in 1901 he published his research as Regeneration.

On June 4, 1904, Morgan married Lillian Vaughan Sampson who had entered graduate school in biology at Bryn Mawr. Later she contributed significantly to Morgan’s Drosophila work. And one of their four children was Isabel Morgan who became a virologist at Johns Hopkins, specializing in polio research.

Later in 1904, he worked with his old friend at Columbia University. This move freed him to focus fully on experimental work.

He worked on the fruit fly Dorosophila melanogaster. With Fernandus Payne, he mutated Dorosophila through physical, chemical and radiational means. Morgan’s flyroom at Colombia became world-famous, and he found it easy to attract funding and visiting academics. Morgan did lots of works and experiments here with his friends and he became very successful.

Morgan moved to California to head the Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology in 1928. From 1927 to 1931 Morgan served as the President of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1933 Morgan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; he had been nominated in 1919 and 1930 for the same work.

Morgan had throughout his life suffered with a chronic duodenal ulcer. In 1945, at age 79, he experienced a severe heart attack and died from a ruptured artery. He was awarded many awards with his work on many subjects, especially evolution.

Bibliography: wikipedia

eodev.com

Prepared by: Ayşem Aleyna Ustaoğlu