William Bateson
William Bateson ( born August 8, 1861 in Whitby, † February 8, 1926 in Merton ) was a British geneticist. He coined the term genetics in 1906. The biologist, anthropologist and natural philosopher Gregory Bateson was his son.
Life and work
William Bateson was educated at Rugby School and St. John's College, Cambridge. In 1883 he put his degree as B. A. in Cambridge, where he also worked as an assistant to Adam Sedgwick ( 1854-1913 ). From 1883 to 1884 he worked at William Keith Brooks ( 1848-1908 ) at Johns Hopkins University.
After the rediscovery of the work of Gregor Mendel in 1900 Bateson contributed significantly to the spread of the ideas of Mendel. In a letter to Bateson on April 10, 1905 wrote to Adam Sedgwick, he first started using the term genetics. On a 1906 in London held under his chairmanship meeting he proposed the term before officially for the newly emerging science building.
1907, Bateson Silliman Lecturer at Yale University, and from 1908 to 1909 professor of biology at Cambridge. He discovered together with Reginald Punnett the genetic linkage and founded with him in 1910 the journal Journal of Genetics. Bateson in 1910 was appointed director of the John Innes Horticultural Institution. From 1912 to 1914 he additionally held the Fuller professor of physiology at the Royal Institution. In 1922 he was a curator at the British Museum.
In 1894 he was elected as a member ( "Fellow" ) to the Royal Society, in 1904, the Darwin Medal in 1920 and the Royal Medal awarded him. In 1901 he was awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society Victoria Medal of Honour. In 1909 he was admitted to the Linnean Society.
Writings (selection )
- Material for the study of variation Treated with especial regard to discontinuity in the origin of species. Macmillan, London & New York 1894; digitized version
- Mendel 's Principles of Heredity: A Defence. University Press, Cambridge 1902; digitized version
- Problems of Genetics, Yale University Press, New Haven 1913; digitized version