Warwick Kerr

Warwick Estevam Kerr (born September 9, 1922 in Santana do Parnaíba , São Paulo , Brazil ; † September 15, 2018 ) was a Brazilian agricultural engineer, geneticist and entomologist . He was particularly recognized for his discoveries in the field of genetics and genotyping of bees . He was responsible for the spread of the Africanized honeybees , also known as "killer bees", a hybrid of European and African honeybees.

Origin and education

Kerr was born in 1922 in Santana do Parnaíba, São Paulo, to Bárbara Chaves Kerr and Américo Caldas Kerr. His family was originally from Scotland and moved to Pirapora, São Paulo state in 1925. He attended the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie and was then accepted at the Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz of the University of São Paulo in Piracicaba , where he graduated as an agricultural engineer.

His career as a scientist began in Piracicaba itself. Here he did his doctorate and found employment as an assistant. In 1951 he went for further studies at the University of California, Davis , and in 1952 at Columbia University , where he studied together with the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky .

Professional background

In 1958, Professor Dias da Silveira from the Faculdade de Ciências de Rio Claro of the newly founded Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) invited him to help him set up the Department of Biology. He stayed here until 1964 and headed a research group on the genetics of bees, his main area of ​​expertise. From 1962 to 1964 he set up the newly founded Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) as Scientific Director . In December 1964 he accepted a position as Full Professor of Genetics in the Medical Faculty of Ribeirão Preto at the University of São Paulo, where he set up a new Department of Genetics. In doing so, Kerr succeeded in building a first-rate research center, particularly in the fields of insect genetics and human genetics . He trained a large number of Masters and PhD students. The department also included an emerging field in research and teaching, mathematical biology and biostatistics . It was the first of its kind in a medical college in Brazil and a pioneer in the use of computers in biology and medicine, particularly in animal breeding genetics .

From March 1975 to April 1979, Kerr moved to Manaus , Amazonas , to set up and run the National Institute of Amazonia Research (INPA), which had just been established by the National Council for Scientific and Technical Development (CNPq). In January 1981 he officially retired from the University of São Paulo, but did not withdraw from the world of research, but shortly afterwards accepted a position as full professor at the Universidade Federal do Maranhão in São Luís in the state of Maranhão , where he held the department for biology and for a short time (1987–1988) also headed the university. He then went to the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia in the state of Minas Gerais as a professor of genetics in February 1988 , where he worked until his death in 2018.

During all these stations he researched stingless bees , especially the Latin American genus Melipona . These bees are often eaten by wild honey collectors. Dr. Kerr became world famous for his research on the crossbreeding of the East African highland bee and American bees, which caused national and international excitement when some African queen bees accidentally escaped from Kerr's research apiarium in Rio Claro and colonies of African bees spread across the continent. These bees are much more aggressive towards humans than their native counterparts. As a result, there were a number of attack and sting incidents and also a few deaths, until the species had completely mixed with the local bee population. Today's descendants are called Africanized honey bees .

Kerr published 513 scientific papers on various topics. He was a member of the Academia Brasileira de Ciências (ABC) and a foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He was awarded the Grand Cross of the National Order for Scientific Merit by the Brazilian President Itamar Franco in 1994.

Others

Kerr was married to Lygia Sansigolo Kerr and had seven children and 17 grandchildren. His hobbies included growing and cultivating native flowers, orchids and fruits, as well as exercising, gardening and cycling.

Publications (selection)

• WE Kerr: Evolution of the population structure in bees . In: Genetics . 79, 1975, pp. 73-84. "No"
• WE Kerr: Population genetic studies in bees. 2 sex-limited genes . In: evolution . 30, 1976, pp. 94-99. "No"
• WE Kerr: Sex determination in bees. XXI. Number of XO-heteroalleles in a natural population of Melipona compressipes fasciculata (Apidae) . In: Insectes Sociaux . 34, 1987, pp. 274-27. "No"
• WE Kerr & RA da Cunha: Sex determination in bees. XXVI Masculinism of workers in the Apidae . In: Brazilian Journal of Genetics . 13, 1990, pp. 479-489. "No"
• WE Kerr: The bee or not the bee? . In: The Times Literary Supplement . 1992. "no"

source

• Based on Warwick Estevam Kerr Biography . Brazilian Academy of Sciences.