1874-1954

American geneticist who showed an early interest in botany and agriculture. Home schooling and scant formal education qualified him to teach at Ohio public schools and Antioch College, where he also received a B.S. in 1901. Three years later he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Shull was interested in statistical studies of variation, which brought him to the attention of Charles Davenport and earned him a position at the Station for Experimental Evolution. After spending several years studying the products and procedures of Luther Burbank, he spent the rest of his life teaching and researching genetics at Princeton University. His primary contribution was his work with corn and his development of hybrid corn, one of the most significant agricultural advances of the twentieth century.