Myron Gordon (biologist)

Myron Gordon (November 13, 1899 – March 12, 1959) was an American biologist and geneticist and became an expert on platy fish Xiphophorus while using them for his pioneering cancer research, starting in the late 1920s. Early papers were published while still a graduate student at Cornell University, but he is best known for his research at New York University and the New York Zoological Society (now Wildlife Conservation Society).

Gordon received his education at Cornell University, achieving first his Bachelor of Science in 1925, going on to study for a Masters of Science in Genetics and Agriculture, 1925-1926, and finally achieving a Ph.D in Zoology, Limnology and Genetics in 1929.

In summers, during school, Gordon worked a variety of jobs. He began in 1920 as a keeper at the New York Zoological Park (now the Bronx Zoo) and continued from 1921 to 1923 as a Game Keeper, first at the State of Maryland Game Farm, GwynnBrook, MD. and later in 1923 at the State of New York Game Farm, Middle Island, NY. The summer of 1924 saw him work as a Collector at the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, at McLean Bogs, NY. For two summers after this Gordon was an Instructor at Long Island Biological Association, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. In 1927, he served as a Biologist with the State of NY Biological Survey (Fisheries) and during the last summers of his Ph.D he was first an Investigator at Carnegie Institute of Washington, Marine Biological Laboratory, Dry Tortugas, FL. in 1928 and then an Investigator at Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass. in 1929.

Gordon held a variety of professional posts throughout his career;

Whilst at the AMNH he developed advanced systems to study genetic and molecular events in melanoma formation. During his tenure at the museum he published a key review The Melonoma Cell as an Incompletely Differentiated Pigment Cell (in M. Gordon (ed.), Pigment Cell Biology, pp. 215–236. New York: Academic Press. 1959).

Herbert Axelrod, of TFH Publications, knowing of Gordon's academic reputation and ability to write clearly on any level, recruited him to write a very popular series of booklets and magazine features aimed at tropical fish hobbyists.

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