Colin Pittendrigh
| Colin S. Pittendrigh | |
|---|---|
| Born |
13 October 1918 Whitley Bay (now part of Tyne and Wear), England |
| Died | 19 March 1996 (aged 77) Bozeman, Montana, United States |
| Residence | United States |
| Nationality | English |
| Fields | Chronobiology, Biology |
| Alma mater |
University of Durham Princeton University |
| Known for | Circadian Rhythms |
Colin Pittendrigh (October 13, 1918 – March 19, 1996) was a British-born biologist who spent most of his adult life in the United States. Pittendrigh is regarded as the “father of the biological clock,” and founded the modern field of chronobiology alongside Jürgen Aschoff and Erwin Bünning. He is known for his careful descriptions of the properties of the circadian clock in Drosophila and other species, and providing the first formal models of how circadian rhythms entrain (synchronize) to local light-dark cycles.
He obtained his first degree of botany at University of Durham, and was assigned to wartime service as a biologist in Trinidad during World War II where he studied malaria transmission by mosquitoes. After the war, he attended Columbia University to study for his Ph.D. He later joined the faculty of Princeton University and started his chronobiology research. He also co-chaired a Mars exploration project at NASA from 1964 to 1966.
The defining principle that Pittendrigh developed throughout his career was that the properties of the circadian clock are independent from those of the behaviors it controls. This gave him the freedom to study the clock through a range of physiological functions from the hatching of fruit flies to rodents' locomotor activities. He performed large series of experiments to demonstrate that circadian rhythmicity is intrinsic and independent of environmental cues. He carried out a famous and protracted debate with Frank Brown, of Northwestern University, on whether circadian timekeeping is intrinsic or environmentally driven. Pittendrigh’s data and argument ultimately prevailed and sparked interest in chronobiology.
Pittendrigh died from cancer on Tuesday, March 19, 1996, at his home in Bozeman, Montana. He has been regarded as one of the most influential figures in the field, and his research influences the field of chronobiology even after his death. The Society for Research on Biological Rhythms holds biannual lectures named in honor of Pittendrigh and Aschoff.
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