"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." Theodosius Dobzhansky, Geneticist
Theodosius Dobzhansky was born on January 25, 1900, in the town of Nemirov, Russia. He was an only child. At an early age he became a serious collector of moths and butterflies. By age twelve, Dobzhansky already knew what he wanted to be and later told people that "there was no question that I wanted to become a biologist" and he planned to study nature science in the University of Kiev.
In about 1915, he read and discussed Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" with a friend. Reading the "Origin" reinforced his desire to become a professional biologist. In May of 1912, he completed the requirements for his undergraduate degree, although he never formally received a diploma. This was the end of his formal education. Upon graduation, he took an academic position as an Assistant with the Faculty of Agriculture at the Polytechnic Institute of Kiev.
Despite the difficulties of his university years, he retained his enthusiasm for studying ladybird beetles and he set to work on his research. Beginning in 1912, he began his acquaintance with modern genetics. A young Professor of Botany, Gregory Levitsky, brought genetics to Dobzhansky's attention. By 1927, Dobzhansky had reached a frustrating plateau in his efforts to understand evolution in nature. On December 27, 1927, he and his wife arrived in the United States and started to work with Morgan and his group.
Evolution questions were certainly on his mind in 1932. In that year, he
finally wrote an article on variation and evolution of lady-beetles for
publication in the American Naturalist. Dobzhansky's studies in population genetics served as a basis for his
explanation of how the evolution of races and species could have come about
through adaptation. He discovered that successful species tend to have a wide
variety of genes that, while they do not appear to be useful to the organism in
its present environment, do provide a species as a whole with genetic diversity.
This diversity enables the species to adapt effectively to changes in the
surrounding environment.
On November 11, 1975, he took a trip to San Jacinto and died there on December 18, 1975.
John A.Moore and Bruce Wallace, Dobzhansky's Genetics of Natural Populations, 1981.
http://mobydicks.com/lecture/Dobzhanskyhall/messages/1.html
http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?z=1&pg=2&ti=03E07000
Author Emily Lei Pi Sze