Edgar Shannon Anderson | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1897-11-09)November 9, 1897 |
| Died | June 18, 1969(1969-06-18) (aged 71) |
| Alma mater | Michigan State College,Harvard University |
| Awards | Darwin-Wallace Medal |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany |
| Institutions | Missouri Botanical Garden,Washington University in St. Louis,John Innes Horticultural Institute,Arnold Arboretum |
| Doctoral advisor | Edward Murray East |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | E.S.Anderson |
Edgar Shannon Anderson (November 9, 1897 – June 18, 1969) was an Americanbotanist.[1][2] He introduced the termintrogressive hybridization[3] and his 1949 book of that title was an original and important contribution tobotanical genetics.[4] His work on the transfer and origin of adaptations through natural hybridization continues to be relevant.[5][6]
Anderson was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1934.[7] In 1954, he was an elected a member of theNational Academy of Sciences.[8] He was also president of theBotanical Society of America in 1952,[9] and was a charter member of theSociety for the Study of Evolution[10] and theHerb Society of America[11] He received theDarwin-Wallace Medal of theLinnean Society in 1958.[12]
Anderson was born inForestville, New York.[13] When he was three, his family moved toEast Lansing, Michigan where his father had accepted a position to teach dairy husbandry.[14][15]
In 1914 Anderson enteredMichigan State College to study botany andhorticulture. After completing his degree in Biology in 1918,[14] he joined the Naval Reserve and in 1919 he accepted a graduate position at theBussey Institution ofHarvard University. His studies were supervised by geneticistEdward Murray East and Anderson worked on the genetics ofself-incompatibility inNicotiana.[3] He was awarded a master's degree in 1920 and a DSc in agricultural genetics in 1922.[14]
Anderson accepted a position as a geneticist at theMissouri Botanical Garden in 1922. He was appointed assistant professor of botany atWashington University in St. Louis. His research was focused on developing techniques to quantify geographic variation inIris versicolor. Anderson determined the existence of a second species,Iris virginica.[3]
In 1929 Anderson received a fellowship to undertake studies at theJohn Innes Horticultural Institute in Britain, where he worked with cytogeneticistC. D. Darlington, statisticianR. A. Fisher, and geneticistJ. B. S. Haldane. Anderson's data set on three related species of irises was used by Fisher as an example with which to demonstrate statistical methods ofclassification and has subsequently become very well known in themachine learning community, though often described asFisher's iris data.[16][17]
Anderson returned to the United States in 1931 and took a position at theArnold Arboretum at Harvard where he worked with geneticistKarl Sax. In 1935 he returned to the Missouri Botanical Garden and in 1937 received the Engelmann Professorship in botany atWashington University in St. Louis. Between 1934 and 1938 he worked predominantly onTradescantia. He was the first to introduce the termintrogressive hybridization.[3]
In 1941 Anderson was invited to present theJesup Lectures atColumbia University withErnst Mayr, discussing the role of genetics on plant systematics. However, unlike the other presenters of the Jesup Lectures, whose writings would be regarded as the foundation of themodern evolutionary synthesis, Anderson never completed his accompanying manuscript forSystematics and the origin of species. Instead he turned his attention toZea mays[3][18] emphasizing the need to study both wild and cultivated plants.[19]
Anderson publishedIntrogressive Hybridization in 1949, describing gene transfer between hybridizing forms,[5] and the role ofintrogression in speciation.[20] He also wrote the popular science bookPlants, Man, and Life (1952), described by one reviewer as "a book every botanist and anthropologist should read".[21] Anderson was briefly director of the Missouri Gardens in 1954, but returned to teaching in 1957. He retired officially in 1967.[14]
Anderson was a close colleague and friend ofEsther Lederberg.[22] They frequented theCold Spring Harbor Laboratory symposia.[23] Anderson was a close friend of many other colleagues, such asJ. B. S. Haldane[5] andG. Ledyard Stebbins.[24]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
