Rollins A. Emerson

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Rollins Adams Emerson (born May 5, 1873 in Pillar Point , New York , † December 8, 1947 in Ithaca , New York) was an American geneticist.

Life

Emerson grew up on a farm in Nebraska and studied agriculture at the University of Nebraska with a bachelor's degree in 1897. He then spent two years at the Department of Agriculture's research stations. In 1899 he became an assistant professor of horticulture there. At the turn of the century he dealt with genetics and cross-breeding experiments with bean plants (and also with maize as early as 1899), inspired by the rediscovery of Mendel's rules that took place around this time. 1911/12 he was a year at Harvard University to do his doctorate with Edward M. East (1879-1938) (the doctorate took place in 1913). From 1914 he was a professor of plant breeding at Cornell University , where he was retired in 1942. From 1925 to 1931 he was dean of the Graduate School at Cornell University.

Emerson was a pioneer in the use of cereals (corn) for genetic research, and he and his students created gene maps (linkage maps ) of corn. He studied the interplay of genes in the inheritance of color patterns (published 1921) and recognized the role of multiple alleles . His work made Cornell University a center for corn genetics. Research by other institutes was published there in an annual Maize newsletter. In addition to theoretical research, he was also active in practical breeding questions for agricultural purposes, for example beans, celery and melons.

In 1923/24 he collected various maize seeds in South and Central America, partly on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, and in 1935 he was in Mexico to examine, among other things, the maize varieties of the Maya.

Emerson was a member of the National Academy of Sciences , the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Philosophical Society . In 1923 he was president of the American Society of Naturalists and in 1933 of the Genetic Society of America.

In 1898 he married Harriet Hardin, with whom he had four children. His son Sterling Howard Emerson was a genetics professor at Caltech.

Fonts

  • Genetic studies of variegated pericarp in maize. In: Genetics , 2, 1917, 1-35
  • The genetic relations of plant colors in maize , Cornell University Agricultural Experimental Station, Memoir 39, 1921

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Emerson, Rollins A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Emerson, Rollins Adams (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American geneticist
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Pillar Point , New York
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1947
Place of death Ithaca , New York