William Bateson

Born in Whitby, England, in 1861, William Bateson became an influential biologist at a moment when scientists were trying to understand how traits are passed from one generation to the next. He studied at St John's College, Cambridge, and built a reputation through research on variation in plants and animals.

Bateson is best remembered for promoting Gregor Mendel’s work after its rediscovery around 1900. He coined the term "genetics" and argued strongly that careful breeding experiments could reveal the rules of inheritance. His energetic defense of Mendelian ideas earned him the nickname "Mendel’s bulldog."

He later served as the first director of the John Innes Horticultural Institution, where he continued research that helped shape the young science of heredity. When he died in 1926, genetics was still a new field, but Bateson had already helped give it both its name and much of its early momentum.