Thomas Hunt Morgan

Born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1866, Thomas Hunt Morgan studied at the University of Kentucky and then Johns Hopkins University, where he trained in zoology and experimental biology.

He became one of the key figures in early genetics through his work with Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly. At Columbia University, Morgan and his students used fly experiments to show that genes are linked in a linear order on chromosomes, helping establish the chromosome theory of heredity and laying foundations for modern genetic mapping.

Morgan later moved to the California Institute of Technology, where he helped launch the Division of Biology and continued shaping the field as both a researcher and teacher. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for his discoveries concerning the role of chromosomes in heredity, and he died in Pasadena in 1945.