Thomas Hunt Morgan

Thomas Hunt Morgan
Johns Hopkins yearbook of 1891
Born	(1866-09-25)September 25, 1866 Lexington, Kentucky
Died	December 4, 1945(1945-12-04) (aged 79) Pasadena, California
Nationality	United States
Fields	Geneticist Embryologist
Institutions	Bryn Mawr College Columbia University California Institute of Technology
Alma mater	University of Kentucky (B.S.), Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D.)
Doctoral students	Nettie Maria Stevens John Howard Northrop Hermann Joseph Muller Calvin Bridges Alfred Sturtevant
Known for	Establishing Drosophila melanogaster as a major model organism in genetics Linked genes
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1933) Copley Medal (1939)
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Thomas Hunt Morgan (September 25, 1866 – December 4, 1945) was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist, embryologist, and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries elucidating the role that the chromosome plays in heredity.

Morgan received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in zoology in 1890 and researched embryology during his tenure at Bryn Mawr. Following the rediscovery of Mendelian inheritance in 1900, Morgan began to study the genetic characteristics of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In his famous Fly Room at Columbia University, Morgan demonstrated that genes are carried on chromosomes and are the mechanical basis of heredity. These discoveries formed the basis of the modern science of genetics.

During his distinguished career, Morgan wrote 22 books and 370 scientific papers. As a result of his work, Drosophila became a major model organism in contemporary genetics. The Division of Biology which he established at the California Institute of Technology has produced seven Nobel Prize winners.

Morgan was born in Lexington, Kentucky, to Charlton Hunt Morgan and Ellen Key Howard Morgan. Part of a line of Southern planter elite on his father's side, Morgan was a nephew of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and his great-grandfather John Wesley Hunt had been the first millionaire west of the Allegheny Mountains. Through his mother, he was the great-grandson of Francis Scott Key, the author of the "Star Spangled Banner", and John Eager Howard, governor and senator from Maryland. Following the Civil War, the family fell on hard times with the temporary loss of civil and some property rights for those who aided the Confederacy. His father had difficulty finding work in politics and spent much of his time coordinating veterans reunions.