1864-1933

German Geneticist and Botanist

Carl Correns was one of three scientists who simultaneously rediscovered the work of Gregor Mendel (1822-1884). Correns investigated and confirmed the validity of many Mendelian laws and showed a deep understanding of Mendelian genetics. Correns's research was the first to correlate Mendelian segregation with the reduction division of chromosomes, and he illustrated several important examples of deviations in Mendelian inheritance, such as natural variations in the dominant-recessive heredity pattern.

Correns was born in Munich to a Swiss mother and German father who was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Art. An only child who was orphaned at age 17, Correns contracted a case of tuberculosis that delayed the degree he finally received from the University of Munich in 1889. He married Karl von Nageli's (1817-1891) niece Elizabeth Widmer in 1892. He served as a lecturer, then assistant...