1. Who is he?
Thomas Hunt Morgan, taken from www.wikipedia.org/thomashuntmorgan
He was a famous American geneticist and embryologist, born on September 25, 1866, and died on December 4, 1945. He is widely acknowledged as the "founder" of using fruit flies to study heredity in breeding experiments.
Information taken from www.wikipedia.org/thomashuntmorgan
2. What did he do?
Using the fruit fly for his experimental research, he showed that genes are linked in a series on chromosomes, and are responsible for identifiable, hereditary traits. His work played a key role in establishing the field of genetics.
It was in his lab, in one of the many breeding experiments that he carried out, that the first mutant fruit fly, with white eyes instead of red eyes, was first discovered.
White eyes (left) and red eye (right) fruit flies, taken from http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/mutant_flies
3. His achievements
Thomas Hunt Morgan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933. The work for which the prize was awarded was completed over a 17-year period at Columbia University, commencing in 1910 with his discovery of the white-eyed mutation in the fruit fly, Drosophila. He was the first to win the Nobel Prize for genetics.
Information taken from http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/articles/lewis
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