1866-1944

American geneticist who was an early promoter of Mendelian genetics. He advocated using statistical methods (biometry) in biology. He taught zoology at Harvard and the University of Chicago, but then convinced the Carnegie Institution to endow a research institute to promote eugenics. With these funds he established a genetics research institute in 1904 and a few years later the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, where he collected data on hereditary illnesses, as well as other hereditary physical and mental traits.