Hermann Joseph Muller | |
---|---|
Born |
New York City, New York, U.S. |
December 21, 1890
Died | April 5, 1967 Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
(aged 76)
Nationality | United States |
Fields | Genetics, molecular biology |
Alma mater | Columbia University |
Doctoral advisor | Thomas Hunt Morgan |
Doctoral students | H. Bentley Glass |
Known for | The genetic effects of radiation |
Notable awards |
1927 Newcomb Cleveland Prize 1963 Humanist of the Year (American Humanist Association) |
Spouse | Jessie Marie Jacobs (m. 1923; 1 child) Dorothea Kantorowicz (m. 1939) (1909–1986) |
1927 Newcomb Cleveland Prize
1946 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Linnean Society of London's Darwin–Wallace Medal (1958).
Fellow of the Royal Society
Hermann Joseph Muller (or H. J. Muller) (December 21, 1890 – April 5, 1967) was an American geneticist, educator, and Nobel laureate best known for his work on the physiological and genetic effects of radiation (Mutagenesis) as well as his outspoken political beliefs. Muller frequently warned of the long-term dangers of radioactive fallout from nuclear war and nuclear testing, helping to raise public awareness in this area.
Muller was born in New York City, the son of Frances (Lyons) and Hermann Joseph Muller, Sr., an artisan who worked with metals. He excelled in the public schools. His mother's family was Jewish, and had come from Britain, while his father's was Catholic and German. As an adolescent, he attended a Unitarian church and considered himself a pantheist; in high school he became an atheist. At 16 he entered Columbia College. From his first semester he was interested in biology; he became an early convert of the Mendelian-chromosome theory of heredity — and the concept of genetic mutations and natural selection as the basis for evolution. He formed a Biology Club and also became a proponent of eugenics; the connections between biology and society would be his perennial concern. Muller earned a B.A. degree in 1910.