List of Geneticists

This is a list of people who have made notable contributions to genetics. The growth and development of genetics represents the work of many people. This list of geneticists is therefore by no means complete. Contributors of great distinction to genetics are not yet on the list.

Contents

Top · 0–9 · A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Dagfinn Aarskog (1928- ), Norwegian pediatrician and geneticist, described Aarskog-Scott syndrome
Jon Aase (1936- ), US dysmorphologist, described Aase syndrome, expert on fetal alcohol syndrome
John Abelson (c.1939- ), US biochemist, studies of machinery and mechanism of RNA splicing
Susan L. Ackerman, US neurogeneticist, genes controlling brain development and neuron survival
Jerry Adams (1940- ), US molecular biologist in Australia, hematopoietic genetics and cancer
Bruce Alberts (1938- ), US biochemist, phage worker, studied DNA replication and cell division
William Allan (1881-1943), US country doctor, pioneered human genetics
C. David Allis (1951-1965), US biologist with a fascination for chromatin
Carl-Henry Alström (1907-1993), Swedish psychiatrist, described genetic disease: Alstrom syndrome
Sidney Altman (1939- ), Canadian-US biophysicist who won Nobel Prize for catalytic functions of RNA
Cecil A. Alport (1880-1959),UK internist, identified Alport syndrome (hereditary nephritis and deafness)
David Altshuler (c.1965- ), US endocrinologist and geneticist, the genetics of type 2 diabetes
Bruce Ames (1928- ), US molecular geneticist, created Ames test to screen chemicals for mutagenicity
D. Bernard Amos (1923-2003), UK-US immunologist who studied the genetics of individuality
Edgar Anderson (1897-1969), eminent US botanical geneticist
E.G. (”Andy”) Anderson, US Drosophila and maize geneticist
William French Anderson (1936- ), US worker in gene therapy
Corino Andrade (1906-2005), Portuguese neurologist and clinical geneticist
Tim Anson (1901-1968), US molecular biologist, proposed protein folding a reversible two-state reaction
Stylianos E. Antonarakis (1951- ), US-Greek medical geneticist, genotypic and phenotypic variation
Werner Arber (1929- ), Swiss microbiologist, Nobel Prize for discovery of restriction endonucleases
Michael Ashburner (1942- ), British Drosophila geneticist and polymath
William Astbury (1898-1961), UK molecular biologist, X-ray crystallography of proteins and DNA
Giuseppe Attardi, Italian-US molecular biologist, genetics of human mitochondrial function
Charlotte Auerbach (1899-1994), German-born British pioneer in mutagenesis
Oswald Avery (1877–1955), Canadian-born US co-discoverer that DNA is the genetic material
Richard Axel (1946- ) US physician-scientist, Nobel Prize for genetic analysis of olfactory system

B

E. B. Babcock (1877-1954), US plant geneticist, pioneered genetic analysis of genus Crepis
E-G Balbiani (1823-1899), French embryologist who found chromosome puffs now called Balbiani rings
David Baltimore (1938- ), US biologist, Nobel Prize for the discovery of reverse transcriptase
Guido Barbujani (1955- ), Italian population geneticist and evolutionary biologist
Murray Barr (1908–1995), Canadian scientist, first saw Barr body in cells due to inactive X chromosome
Cornelia Bargmann, US, molecular neurogeneticist studying the C. elegans brain
David P. Bartel (B.A. 1982), US geneticist, discovered many microRNAs regulating gene expression
William Bateson (1861-1926), British geneticist who coined the term “genetics”
E. Baur (1875-1933), German geneticist, botanist, discovered inheritance of plasmids
George Beadle (1903-1989), US Neurospora geneticist and Nobel Prize-winner
Peter Emil Becker (1908-2000), German human geneticist, described Becker’s muscular dystrophy
Jon Beckwith, US microbiologist and geneticist, isolated first gene from a bacterial chromosome
Peter Beighton (1934- ) UK/South Africa medical geneticist, first warned of economy class syndrome
Julia Bell (1879-1979), English geneticist who documented inheritance of many diseases
John Belling (1866-1933), English cytogeneticist who developed staining technique for chromosomes
Baruj Benacerraf (1920- ), Venezuelan-US immunologist who won Nobel Prize for HLA system
Kurt Benirschke (1924- ), German-US pathologist, comparative cytogenetics, twinning in armadillos
Seymour Benzer (1921- ), US molecular biologist and pioneer of neurogenetics
Paul Berg (1926- ), US biochemist and Nobel Prize-winner for basic research on nucleic acids
J. D. Bernal (1901-1971), Irish physicist and pioneer X-ray crystallographer
James Birchler, Drosophila and Maize geneticists and cytogenticist.
J. Michael Bishop (1936- ), US microbial immunogeneticist, Nobel Prize-winner for oncogenes
Elizabeth Blackburn (1948-), Australo-US biologist, Lasker Award on telomeres and telomerase
Günter Blobel (1936- ), German-US biologist, Nobel Prize for protein targeting (address tags on proteins)
David Blow (1931-2004), British biophysicist who helped develop X-ray crystallography of proteins
Baruch Blumberg (Barry Blumberg) (1925- ), US physician and Nobel Prize-winner on hepatitis B
Julia Bodmer (1934-2001), British geneticist, key figure in discovery and definition of the HLA system
Walter Bodmer (1936- ), German-UK human population geneticist, immunogeneticist, cancer research
James Bonner (1910-1996), far-ranging US molecular biologist, into histones, chromatin, nucleic acids
David Botstein (1942- ), Swiss-born US molecular geneticist, brother of Leon Botstein
Theodor Boveri (1862-1915), German biologist and cytogeneticist
Peter Bowen (1932-1988), Canadian medical geneticist
Herb Boyer (1936- ), US, created transgenic bacteria inserting human insulin gene into E. coli
Paul D. Boyer (1918- ), US biochemist and Nobel Prize-winner
Jean Brachet (1909-1998), Belgian biochemist, made key contributions to fathoming roles of RNA
Roscoe Brady US physician-scientist at NIH, studies of genetic neurological metabolic disorders
Sydney Brenner (1927- ), British molecular biologist and Nobel Prize-winner
Calvin Bridges (1889-1938), US geneticist, non-disjunction proof that chromosomes contain genes
R.A. Brink (1897-1984), Canadian-US plant geneticist and breeder, studied paramutation, transposons
Roy Britten (1919- ) US molecular and evolutionary biologist, discovered and studied junk DNA
John Brookfield Drosophila population geneticist.
Michael Stuart Brown (1941- ) US geneticist and Nobel Prize-winner on cholesterol metabolism
Manuel Buchwald (1940- ), Peruvian-born Canadian medical geneticist and molecular geneticist
Linda Buck (1947- ) US biologist, Nobel Prize for post-doc work (with Axel) cloning olfactory receptors
James Bull, US molecular biologist and phage worker, evolution of sex determining mechanisms
Luther Burbank (1849-1926), US botanist, horticulturist, pioneer in agricultural science
Macfarlane Burnet (1899-1985), Australian biologist, Nobel Prize for immunological tolerance
Cyril Burt (1883-1971), British educational psychologist, did debated mental and behavioral twin study

C

John Cairns (1922- ), UK physician-scientist, showed bacterial DNA one molecule with replicating fork
Allan Campbell, US microbiologist and geneticist, pioneering work on phage lambda
Howard Cann, US pediatrician and geneticist, human population genetics at Stanford and CEPH in Paris
Antonio Cao (1929- ), Italian pediatrician and medical geneticist, expert on the thalassemias
Mario Capecchi (1937- ), Italian-born US molecular geneticist, co-invented the knock-out mouse, Nobel prize for Medicine, 2007
Elof Axel Carlson, US geneticist and eminent historian of science
Gyaneshwer Chaubey, Indian population geneticist.
Hampton Carson (1914-2004), US population geneticist, studied cytogenetics and evolution of Drosophila
Tom Caskey (c.1938- ), US internist, human geneticist and entrepreneur; biochemical diseases
Torbjörn Caspersson (1910-1997), Swedish cytogeneticist, revealed human chromosome banding
William B. Castle (1897-1990), US hematologist, work on hereditary spherocytosis, sickle cell anemia
William E. Castle (1867-1962), US geneticist, inspired T.H. Morgan, father of William B. Castle
David Catcheside (1907-1994) UK plant geneticist, expert on genetic recombination, active in Australia
Bruce Cattanach (1932- ), eminent UK mouse geneticist, X-inactivation and sex determination in mice
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (1922- ), distinguished Italian population geneticist at Stanford University
Thomas Cech (1947- ), US biochemist who won Nobel Prize for catalytic functions of RNA
Aravinda Chakravarti (1954- ), Indian-born bioinformatician studying genetic factors in common diseases
Jean-Pierre Changeux (1936- ), French molecular neurobiologist, studied allosteric proteins
Erwin Chargaff (1905-2002), Austrian-born US biochemist, Chargaff’s rules led to the double helix
Brian Charlesworth (1945- ), British evolutionary biologist, husband of Deborah Charlesworth
Deborah Charlesworth, British evolutionary biologist, wife of Brian Charlesworth
Martha Chase (1927-2003), US biologist, with Hersey proved genetic material is DNA, not protein
Sergei Chetverikov (1880-1959), Russian population geneticist
Barton Childs (1916- ), US pediatrician, biochemical geneticist, philosopher of medical genetics
George Church (1954- ), US molecular geneticist, did first direct genomic sequencing with Gilbert
Aaron Ciechanover (1947- ), Israeli biologist, won Nobel Prize for ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation
Bryan Clarke (1932- ), British population geneticist, studied apostatic selection and molecular evolution
Cyril Clarke (1907-2000), British medical geneticist, discovered how to prevent Rh disease in newborns
Jens Clausen (1891-1969), Danish-US botanist, geneticist, and ecologist
Edward H. Coe, Jr. (1926- ), influential US maize (corn) geneticist
Stanley Cohen (1922- ), US neurobiologist, Nobel Prize for cell growth factors
Francis Collins (1950- ), US medical geneticist, gene cloner, director of Human Genome Institute
James J. Collins (1965- ), US bioengineer, pioneered synthetic biology and systems biology
Robert Corey (1897-1971), US biochemist, a-helix, ß-sheet and atomic models for proteins
Carl Correns (1864-1933), German botanist and geneticist, one of the re-discoverers of Mendel in 1900
Lewis L. Coriell (1911-2001), US pioneer in culturing human cells
Diane W. Cox, Canadian medical geneticist and expert on Wilson disease
Harriet Creighton (1909-2004), US botanist who with McClintock first saw chromosomal crossover
Francis Crick (1916-2004), English molecular biologist, neuroscientist, co-discoverer of the double helix
James F. Crow (1916- ), US population geneticist and renowned teacher of genetics
Lucien Cuenot (1886-1901), French biologist, proved Mendel’s rules apply to animals as well as plants
A. Jamie Cuticchia (1966- ), US geneticist, into human genome informatics

D

David M. Danks (1931-2003), Australian pediatrician and medical geneticist, expert on Menkes disease
C. D. Darlington (1903-1981), British biologist and geneticist, elucidated chromosomal crossover
Charles Darwin (1809-1882), English naturalist and author of Origin of the Species
Kay Davies, English geneticist, expert on muscular dystrophy
Jean Dausset (1916- ) French immunogeneticist and Nobel Prize-winner for the HLA system
Martin Dawson (1896-1945), Canadian-US researcher, confirmed and named genetic transformation
Margaret Dayhoff (1925-1983), US pioneer in bioinformatics of protein sequences and evolution
Albert de la Chapelle (1933- ), eminent Finnish medical geneticist, genetic predisposition to cancer
Max Delbruck (1906-1981), German-US scientist, Nobel Prize for genetic structure of viruses
Charles DeLisi, US biophysicist, led the initiative that planned and launched the Human Genome Project
Félix d’Herelle (1873-1949), Canadian-French microbiologist, discovered phages, invented phage therapy
Hugo de Vries (1848-1935), Dutch botanist and one of the re-discoverers of Mendel’s laws in 1900
M. Demerec (1895-1966), Croatian-US geneticist, directed Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975), noted Ukrainian-US geneticist and evolutionary biologist
John Doebley, US geneticist, studies genes that drive development and evolution of plants
Peter Doherty (1940- ), Australian, won Nobel Prize for immune recognition of antigens
Albert Dorfman (1916-1982), US biochemical geneticist, discovered cause of Hurler’s syndrome
Gabriel Dover, British evolutionary geneticist
NT Dubinin (1907-1998), Russian biologist and geneticist
Bernard Dutrillaux (1940- ), French cytogeneticist, chromosome banding, comparative cytogenetics
Christian de Duve (1917- ), Belgian cytologist, Nobel Prize for cell organelles (peroxisomes, lysosomes)

E

A.W.F. Edwards (1935-), British statistician, geneticist, developed methods of phylogenetic analysis
John Edwards (1928-), British medical geneticist and cytogeneticist who first described trisomy 18
Hans Eiberg (1945- ), Danish geneticist, discovered the mutation causing blue eyes
R. A. Emerson (1873–1947), American plant geneticist, the main pioneer of corn genetics
Sterling Emerson (1900-1988), American, biochemical genetics, recombination, son of R. A. Emerson
Alan Emery (1928- ), British neuromuscular geneticist, Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy
Boris Ephrussi (1901–1979), Russian-born French geneticist, created way to transplant chromosomes
Robert C. Elston (1932- ), British-born American biostatistical genetics and genetic epidemiologist
Charlie Epstein, American medical geneticist, editor, developed mouse model for Down syndrome, wounded by the Unabomber
Herbert McLean Evans (1882-1971), US anatomist, reported in 1918 humans had 48 chromosomes
Martin Evans, British scientist, discovered embryonic stem cells and developed knockout mouse
Warren Ewens, Australian-US mathematical population geneticist, Ewens’s sampling formula

F

Alexander Cyril Fabergé (1912-1988), Russian-born Anglo-American geneticist, grandson of Carl Fabergé
D. S. Falconer (1913-2004), Scottish quantitative geneticist, wrote textbook to the subject
Stanley Falkow, US microbial geneticist, molecular mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis
Harold Falls (1909-2006), US ophthalmologic geneticist, helped found first genetics clinic in US
William C. Farabee (1865-1925), US anthropologist, brachydactyly is evidence of Mendelism in humans
Nina Fedoroff (c. 1945- ), US plant geneticist, cloning of transposable elements, plant stress response
Malcolm Ferguson-Smith (1931- ) UK cytogeneticist, Klinefelter’s syndrome, chromosome flow cytometry
Philip J. Fialkow (1934-1996), US internist, educator, research in medical genetics and cancer genetics
Giorgio Filippi (1935-1996), Italian medical geneticist, researched diseases linked to X chromosome
J.R.S. Fincham (1926-2005), British microbial (Neurospora) and biochemical geneticist
Gerald Fink (1941- ), US molecular geneticist, preeminent figure in the field of yeast genetics
Andrew Fire (1959- ), US geneticist, Nobel Prize with Mello for discovery of RNA interference
Robert L. Fischer (1950- ), A US geneticist, contributed to the understanding of genomic imprinting and epigenetics
R.A. Fisher (1890-1962), British stellar statistician, evolutionary biologist, and geneticist
Ed Fischer (1920- ), Swiss-US biochemist, Nobel Prize for phosphorylation as switch activating proteins
Eugen Fischer (1874-1967), German physician, anthropologist, eugenicist, influenced Nazi racial hygiene
Asbjorn Folling (1888-1973), Norwegian biochemist and physician who discovered phenylketonuria (PKU)
E.B. Ford (1901-1988), British ecological geneticist, specializing in butterflies and moths
Charles Ford (1912–1999), British pioneer in the golden age of mammalian cytogenetics
Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat (1910-1999), German-born US biochemist who studied tobacco mosaic virus
Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), British crystallographer whose data led to discovery of double helix
Clarke Fraser (1920- ), Canada’s first medical geneticist, student of congenital malformations
Elaine Fuchs (c.1951- ), US cell biologist, molecular mechanisms of skin diseases, reverse genetics
Walter Fuhrmann (1924-1995), German medical geneticist, at Giessen University
Douglas J. Futuyma (1942- ), US evolutionary and ecological biologist

G

Fred Gage, US neuroscientist, studies of neurogenesis and neuroplasticity of the adult brain
Joseph G. Gall (1932- ), distinguished US cell biologist, chromosomes, created in situ hybridization
Francis Galton (1822-1911), British geneticist, eugenicist, statistician
George Gamow (1904-1968), Ukrainian-born American polymath, proposed genetic code concept
Eldon J. Gardner (1909-1989), US professor of genetics in Utah, described Gardner’s syndrome
Alan Garen (c.1924- ), US, early molecular geneticist, nonsense triplets terminating transcription
Archibald Garrod (1857-1936), English physician, pioneered inborn errors, founded biochemical genetics
Stan Gartler (1923-), US human geneticist, G6PD as X-linked marker, HeLa cells contaminating cell lines
Luigi Gedda (1902-2000), Italian geneticist best known for his fascination with twin studies
Walter Gehring (1939- ), Swiss, developmental genetics of Drosophila, discovered homeobox
Park S. Gerald (1921-1993), US medical geneticist, research on hemoglobins and chromosomes
James L. German, US medical geneticist & cytogeneticist, pioneer on Bloom syndrome
Walter Gilbert (1932- ), US biochemist and molecular biologist, Nobel Prize-winner, entrepreneur
H. Bentley Glass (1906-2005) US geneticist, provocative science theorizer, writer, science policy maker
Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch (1907- ), German-born US co-founder of developmental genetics
Richard Goldschmidt (1878-1958),German-American, integrated genetics, development, & evolution
Joseph L. Goldstein (1940- ), US medical geneticist, Nobel Prize-winner on cholesterol
Richard M. Goodman (1932-1989), US-Israeli clinical geneticist, pioneered Jewish genetic diseases
Robert J. Gorlin (1923-2006) US oral pathologist, clinical geneticist, craniofacial syndrome expert
Carol W. Greider (1961- ), US molecular biologist, Lasker Award for telomeres and telomerase
Frederick Griffith (1879-1941), British medical officer who found transforming principle now called DNA
Clifford Grobstein (1916-1998), US scientist, bridged classical embryology and developmental biology
Jean de Grouchy (1926-2003), French pioneer of clinical cytogenetics & karyotype-phenotype correlation
Hans Gruneberg (1907-1982), British mouse geneticist and blood cell biologist
Pierre-Henri Gouyon (1953 - ), French biologist specializing in genetics and bioethics
Elliot S. Goldstein American geneticist at Arizona State University

H

Ernst Hadorn (1902-1976), Swiss pioneer in developmental genetics, mentor of Walter Gehring
JBS Haldane (1892-1964), brilliant British human geneticist and co-founder of population genetics
Ben Hall, US geneticist, DNA:RNA hybridization, yeast production of genetically engineered proteins
Judy Hall (1939- ), dual American and Canadian charismatic clinical geneticist and dysmorphologist
Dean Hamer (1951-) US geneticist, postulated gay gene and God gene for religious experience
John Hamerton (1929-2006), Anglo-Canadian cytogeneticist, prenatal diagnostician, bioethicist
W.D. Hamilton (1936-2000), British evolutionary biologist and eminent evolutionary theorist
Phil Hanawalt, US geneticist, discovered DNA repair replication
Anita Harding (1952-1995), UK neurologist, first mitochondrial DNA mutation in disease
GH Hardy (1877-1947), British mathematician, formulated basic law of population genetics
Henry Harpending (1944- ), US anthropologist and human population geneticist
Harry Harris (1919-94), British biochemical geneticist par excellence
Henry Harris (1925- ), Australo-British cell biologist, work on cancer and human genetics
Lee Hartwell (1939- ), US yeast geneticist, Nobel Prize, “start” gene and checkpoints in the cell cycle
Mogens Hauge (1922-1988), Danish medical geneticist and twin researcher
Donald Hawthorne (1926-2003), US, major contributor to yeast genetics, centromere-linked gene maps
William Hayes (1918-1994), Australian physician, microbiologist & geneticist, bacterial conjugation
Robert Haynes (1931-1998), Canadian geneticist and biophysicist, work on DNA repair and mutagenesis
Frederick Hecht (1930- ), US clinical geneticist, cytogeneticist, coined term fragile site
Michael Heidelberger (1888-1991) US pioneer of modern immunology, won two Lasker Awards
Martin Heisenberg (1940- ), German geneticist,neurobiologist, genetic study of brain of Drosophila
Charles Roy Henderson, (1911-1989), US animal geneticist, basis for genetic evaluation of livestock
Al Hershey (1908-1997), US bacterial geneticist, Nobel Prize largely for Hershey-Chase experiment
Ira Herskowitz (1946–2003), US phage & yeast geneticist, genetic regulatory circuits & mechanisms
Len Herzenberg (1931-), US human geneticist, immunologist, cell biologist and cell sorter
Avram Hershko (1937-), Israeli biologist, Nobel Prize for ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation
Kurt Hirschhorn (1926- ), Viennese-born American pediatrician, medical geneticist, cytogeneticist
Mahlon Hoagland (1921- ), US physician and biochemist, co-discovered tRNA with Paul Zamecnik
Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994), British founder of protein crystallography and Nobel Prize winner
Robert W. Holley (1922-1993), US biochemist, structure of transfer RNA, Nobel Prize
Leroy Hood (1938- ), US molecular biotechnologist, created DNA & protein sequencers & synthesizers
Norman Horowitz (1915-2005), US geneticist, one gene-one enzyme, chemical evolution, space biology
H. Robert Horvitz (1947- ), US cell biologist, Nobel Prize for programmed cell death
David E. Housman, US molecular biologist, genetic basis of trinucleotide repeat diseases and cancer
Martha M. Howe, US phage geneticist, notable contributions to the study of phage Mu
T.C. Hsu (1917-2003), distinguished Chinese-American cell biologist, geneticist, cytogeneticist
Thomas J. Hudson (1961- ), Canadian genome scientist, maps of human and mouse genomes
David Hungerford (1927–1993), US co-discoverer of Philadelphia chromosome in CML
Tim Hunt (1943- ), UK biochemist, Nobel Prize for discovery of cyclins in cell cycle control
Charles Leonard Huskins (1897-1953), English-born Canadian cytogeneticist at McGill and Wisconsin

I

Harvey Itano (1925- ), American biochemist and pioneer in the study of sickle cell disease

J

François Jacob (1920 - ), French biologist, won Nobel Prize for bacterial gene control
Patricia A. Jacobs (1934- ), Scottish human geneticist and cytogeneticist
Albert Jacquard (1925- ), French geneticist, essayist, humanist, activist
Rudolf Jaenisch (1942- ), German cell biologist, created transgenic mice, leader in therapeutic cloning
Richard Jefferson (1956- ) US molecular plant biologist in Australia, reporter gene system GUS
Alec Jeffreys (1950- ), British geneticist, developed DNA fingerprinting and DNA profiling techniques
Niels K. Jerne (1911-1994), Danish, greatest theoretician in modern immunology, Nobel Prize
Wilhelm Johannsen (1857-1927), Danish botanist who in 1909 coined the word “gene”
Jonathan D.G. Jones, British plant molecular biologist
Christian Jung (1956- ), German plant geneticist and molecular biologist

K

Elvin Kabat (1914–2000) US immunochemist, a founder of modern immunology, antibody-combining sites
Henrik Kacser (1918-1995), Romanian-born UK biochemist and geneticist, worked on metabolic control
Axel Kahn (1944- ), French scientist and geneticist, known for work on genetically modified plants
Franz Josef Kallmann (1897-1965), German-US psychiatrist, pioneer in genetics of psychiatric diseases
Gopinath Kartha (1927-1984), Indian biophysicist, co-discovered triple-helix structure of collagen
Berwind P. Kaufmann (1897-1975), US botanist, did research in basic plant and animal cytogenetics
John Kendrew (1917-1997), UK crystallographer, won Nobel Prize for structure of myoglobin
Cynthia Kenyon (c. 1955- ), US molecular biologist, genetics of aging in the worm C. elegans
Warwick Estevam Kerr (1922- ) Brazilian expert in the genetics and sex determination of bees
Bernard Kettlewell (1907-1979), UK physician, lepidopterist, ecological geneticist, peppered moth
Seymour Kety (1915-2000), US neuroscientist, essential involvement of genetic factors in schizophrenia
Gobind Khorana (1922-), Indian-US molecular biologist, synthesized nucleic acids, Nobel Prize
Motoo Kimura (1924-1994), influential Japanese mathematical biologist in theoretical population genetics
Mary-Claire King (1946- ), US human geneticist and social activist, identified breast cancer genes
David Klein, (1908-1993), Swiss ophthalmologist and human geneticist
Harold Klinger (1929-2004), US pioneer on human chromosomes, founded journal Cytogenetics
Aaron Klug (1926- ), Lithuania/S Africa/UK, Nobel Prize for developing electron crystallography
Al Knudson (1922- ), US pediatric oncologist, geneticist, formulated two hit hypothesis of cancer
Georges J. F. Köhler (1946-1995), German, Nobel Prize for hybridomas making monoclonal antibodies
Arthur Kornberg (1918- ), US biochemist, Nobel Prize on DNA synthesis, father of Roger Kornberg
Roger Kornberg (1947- ), US biologist, Nobel Prize on eukaryotic transcription
Hans Kornberg (1928- ), German-UK biologist, studies of carbohydrate transport
Ed Krebs (1918- ), US biochemist, Nobel Prize for phosphorylation as switch activating proteins
Eric Kremer, US molecular biologist, found trinucleotide repeat in fragile X, research now in gene therapy
Henry Kunkel (1916–1983), US immunologist, created starch gel electrophoresis to separate proteins

L

Bruce Lahn (1969- ), Chinese-born geneticist specializing in evolutionary changes of the human brain
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829), French naturalist, evolutionist, “inheritance of acquired traits”
Eric Lander (1957- ), American molecular geneticist, major contributor to Human Genome Project
Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943), Austrian-American pathologist, won Nobel Prize for blood group discoveries
André Langaney, French evolutionary geneticist
Derald Langham (1913-1991), American agricultural geneticist, the “father of sesame”
Sam Latt (1938-1988), US pioneer in molecular cytogenetics, fluorescent DNA chromosome probes
Philip Leder (1934- ), US geneticist, method to decode genetic code, transgenic animals to study cancer
Esther Lederberg (1922-2006), US microbiologist and bacterial genetics pioneer
Joshua Lederberg (1925- ), US molecular biologist, Nobel Prize, headed Rockefeller University
Jerome Lejeune (1926-1994), French pediatrician, geneticist, discovered trisomy 21 in Down syndrome
Richard Lenski (1956-), US biologist and phage worker, did long-term E. coli evolution experiment
Fritz Lenz (1887-1976), German geneticist and eugenicist, ideas influenced Nazi racial hygiene policies
Widukind Lenz (1919-1995), eminent German medical geneticist who recognized thalidomide syndrome
Leonard Lerman, US molecular biologist, phage worker, mentor of Nobel Prize-winner Sidney Altman
Michael Lerner (1910-1977), Russian-US contributor to population, quantitative & evolutionary genetics
Albert Levan (1905-1998), Swedist geneticist, co-authored report that humans have 46 chromosomes
Cyrus Levinthal (1922-1990), US molecular geneticist, DNA replication, mRNA, molecular graphics
Edward B. Lewis (1918-2004), American founder of developmental genetics and Nobel Prize-winner
Richard Lewontin (1929- ), American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and social commentator
C. C. Li (1912-2003), eminent Chinese American population geneticist and human geneticist
Wen-Hsiung Li (1942- ), Taiwanese-American, molecular evolution, population genetics, genomics
David Linder (1923-1999), US pathologist and geneticist, used G6PD as X-linked clonal tumor marker
Susan Lindquist, US molecular biologist studying effects of protein folding and heat-shock proteins
Jan Lindsten (1935- ), eminent Swedish medical geneticist, secretary general of the Nobel Assembly
Fritz Lipmann (1899-1986), German-American biochemist, Nobel Prize for co-discovery of coenzyme A
C. C. Little (1888–1971), US pioneer mouse geneticist, founded Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor
Richard Losick, US molecular biologist, RNA polymerase, gene transcription, bacterial development
Herbert Lubs (c.1928- ), US internist, medical geneticist, described “marker X” (fragile X chromosome)
Salvador Luria (1912-1991), Italian-American molecular biologist, Nobel Prize for bacteriophage genetics
Jay Lush (1896-1982), American animal geneticist who pioneered modern scientific animal breeding
Michael Lynch, US quantitative geneticist studying evolution, population genetics, and genomics
Mary F. Lyon (1925-), English mouse geneticist, noted X-inactivation and proposed Lyon hypothesis
David T. Lykken (1928-2006), American psychologist and behavioral geneticist known for twin studies
Trofim Lysenko (1898–1976), Soviet scientist, led vicious political campaign against genetics in USSR

M

Ellen Magenis (1925- ), US medical geneticist and cytogeneticist, Smith-Magenis syndrome
Phyllis McAlpine (1941-1998), Canadian human geneticist and gene mapper
Maclyn McCarty (1911–2005), American co-discoverer that DNA is the genetic material
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992), American cytogeneticist, Nobel Prize for genetic transposition
W. McGinnis, US molecular geneticist, found homeobox (Hox) genes responsible for basic body plan
Victor A. McKusick (1921- ), US internist and clinical geneticist, organized human genetic knowledge
Colin MacLeod (1909-1972), Canadian-American co-discoverer that DNA is the genetic material
Tak Wah Mak (1946- ), Chinese-Canadian molecular biol