1902-1992

American Geneticist

Barbara McClintock discovered that certain types of genes, called "jumping genes," can move from one place on a chromosome to another, from one generation to the next. For this discovery she was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, on June 16, 1902, McClintock attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, then went on to Cornell University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1923. As an undergraduate she was very active in social activity, playing the banjo in a jazz band and serving as president of the freshmen women's class. She soon became absorbed in her studies and retreated from social activities to pursue academics. At that time genetics was still a relatively new field, as it had been only 21 years since the rediscovery of Mendel's principles of heredity. However, interest in genetic research was growing. In January 1922 McClintock was...