Theodosius Grigorevich Dobzhansky (Russian — Феодосий Григорьевич Добржанский; sometimes anglicized to Theodore Dobzhansky; January 25, 1900 - November 11, 1975) was a noted geneticist and evolutionary biologist. Dobzhansky was born in Ukraine (then part of Imperial Russia), but lived in the United States beginning in 1927.

Dobzhansky was born in Nemirov, Ukraine then part of Imperial Russia, and his father was a mathematics teacher. Dobzhansky attended the University of Kiev between 1917 and 1921, before moving to Leningrad (St. Petersburg). He taught at the California Institute of Technology from 1930 to 1940 and subsquently moved to Columbia University from 1940 to 1962. He did much important genetic research, mainly on various species of Drosophila.

Dobzhansky was one of the engineers of the modern evolutionary synthesis, which united Mendelian genetics with evolution. He is notable for defining evolution as "a change in the frequency of an allele in a gene pool", in his 1937 book and for the phrase "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution", which is the title of a 1973 essay criticising Creationism.

Bibliography

Books

• Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937, third edition 1951)
• The Biological Basis of Human Freedom (1954).
• Mankind Evolving: The Evolution of the Human Species (1962)
• The Biology of Ultimate Concern (1967)
• Genetics of the Evolution Process (1970)
• Genetic Diversity and Human Equality (1973).

External link

• http://www.2think.org/dobzhansky.shtml - transcript of Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution