The Resume

(September 25, 1866-December 4, 1945)
Born in Lexington, Kentucky
Nephew of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan
Studied mutations in fruit flies
Showed that genes are carried on chromosomes and are the unit of heredity
Also discovered sex-linked traits and chromosomal crossover
Wrote 'Experimental Zoology' (1907), 'Heredity and Sex' (1913), 'A Critique of the Theory of Evolution' (1916), 'Human Inheritance' (1924), 'Evolution and Genetics' (1925) and 'Embryology and Genetics' (1934)
Won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1933)

Why he might be annoying:

He started off as a skeptic of both Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection and Gregor Mendel's laws of heredity; ironically, his discoveries would link and reinforce the two theories.
Rather than disposing of fruit flies in a jar of ether like the other researchers in his lab, he would simply smash them against the white porcelain plate used for counting the flies, leaving the mess accumulating for days or weeks until someone -- often the wife of a grad student -- stepped in to wash the plate.
He also wore clothes and shoes with holes, used a length of rope as a belt, let his mail accumulate unopened on his desk until someone else threw it out, and scribbled his data on scraps of paper.
Oddly, he spent much of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech downplaying the contribution that genetics could make to medicine.

Why he might not be annoying:

He graduated as valedictorian from the University of Kentucky.
He was the first native-born American and first non-physician to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
He recognized the contributions of two of his graduate students by giving part of his Nobel Prize money to their children.
He criticized the eugenics movement as resembling propaganda rather than science.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• 19th Century Scientists
• 20th Century Scientists
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 47]
• I Attended Johns Hopkins University
• I Attended University of Kentucky
• I Died in 1945 (Ranked: 79)
• I Earned a Doctorate
• Look at Me, My Picture Is Art
• My Uncle is Famous Too
• Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (Ranked: 1933)
• People with Tom, Dick or Harry in their Names
• Profiles 34251-34500 (Ranked: 34447)
• Scientists
• Valedictorians

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 16 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 20 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 19 Votes: 52.63% Annoying