25 Facts About Alfred Sturtevant

Alfred Henry Sturtevant was an American geneticist.

On February 13,1968, Sturtevant received the 1967 National Medal of Science from President Lyndon B Johnson.

Alfred Sturtevant's grandfather Julian Monson Sturtevant, a Yale University graduate, was a founding professor and second president of Illinois College, where his father taught mathematics.

Alfred Sturtevant attended a one-room schoolhouse until entering high school in Mobile.

Alfred Sturtevant further pursued his interest in genetics under Thomas Hunt Morgan, who encouraged him to publish a paper of his pedigrees shown through Mendelian genetics.

In 1914, Alfred Sturtevant completed his doctoral work under Morgan as well.

Alfred Sturtevant joined Morgan's research team in the "fly room", in which huge advances were being made in the study of genetics through studies of the fruit fly Drosophila.

In 1928, Alfred Sturtevant moved to Pasadena to work at the California Institute of Technology, where he became a Professor of Genetics and remained for the rest of his career, except for one year when he was invited to teach in Europe.

Alfred Sturtevant taught an undergraduate course in genetics at Caltech and wrote a textbook with George Beadle.

Alfred Sturtevant became the leader of a new genetics research group at Caltech, whose members included George W Beadle, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Sterling Emerson, and Jack Schultz.

Alfred Sturtevant was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1930 and the American Philosophical Society in 1936.

Alfred Sturtevant was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1949.

Alfred Sturtevant loved solving all kinds of puzzles and saw genetics as a puzzle for him to decipher.

Alfred Sturtevant was widely read, interested in politics, newspapers, scientific journals across many subjects and crossword puzzles.

Alfred Sturtevant had an impressive memory and composed and edited papers in his head before writing them down from memory.

Alfred Sturtevant enjoyed a long and prosperous career in genetics until his death on April 5,1970.

Alfred Sturtevant died in Pasadena, California at the age of 78.

Alfred Sturtevant accomplished most of his work between 1910 and World War II.

Alfred Sturtevant warned the public of possible harmful genetic effects of nuclear fallout despite supposedly low levels of ionizing radiation.

Alfred Sturtevant postulated that genes that remained together while being passed from generation to generation must be located on the same chromosome.

Alfred Sturtevant showed that the gene for any specific trait was in a fixed location.

Alfred Sturtevant's experiments determined that the frequency of double crossing over can be used to deduce gene order.

Alfred Sturtevant demonstrated this concept by constructing crosses of three segregating genes, called "three-factor crosses".

Alfred Sturtevant found that using three genes as opposed to two provided most accurate information about gene order on chromosome.

Alfred Sturtevant demonstrated the possibility of "unequal crossing-over" and speculated that it was possibly a main force of evolution.