Hermann Joseph Muller

Hermann Joseph Muller married mathematician, Jessie Mary Jacobs, in 1923, and the couple had a son named David. E. Muller. Their relationship was strained and the couple divorced in 1935.

In 1939, he married Dorothea Kantorowicz and the couple had a daughter named Helen. J. Muller.

He died on 5 April 1967, at Indianapolis, in U.S.A. He was 76 years old at the time of his death.

Hermann Joseph Muller was born on 21 December 1890, in New York City. His father, Hermann Joseph Muller, Sr. was an artisan and his mother’s name was Frances Lyons.

He received his school education from the public school in Harlem and later in the Morris High School in Bronx. He excelled in studies and was also known to be inclined towards science from a young age. While at school, he along with his classmates had formed a science club.

He was the recipient of the Cooper-Hewitt scholarship in 1907 that allowed him to join the Columbia College at the age of 16. Even as a student he worked part time jobs to support himself.

During his first year in college, his interest in biology grew and after reading R.H. Lock’s book on genetics (1906) he began focusing on genetics, by considering gene mutations and natural selection as the foundation for evolution. He was guided by American geneticist and zoologist E.B. Wilson.

While in college, he founded a biology club and advocated eugenics; a philosophy that aimed to promote genetic quality of human population.

After completing his Ph.D. he immediately joined the William Marsh Rice Institute, Houston, in 1915, where he taught several biological subjects and pursued studies in mutation. He remained at the institute until 1918.

Between 1918 and 1920, he was an instructor at the Columbia College after which he joined the University of Texas in Austin as Associate Professor. He later got promoted to the post of professor and remained at the university until 1932.

The period of his career while working at the University of Texas is regarded as the most productive phase in his career. It was during this phase that he studied in detail about the methods of quantitative mutation.

He described the gene to comprise the foundation of life as well as of evolution as it possesses the quality of recreating its own mutations. He formulated the primary principles of spontaneous gene mutation during this time.

His extensive study on the subject and understanding of frequency and processes involved in mutations led to the experimental initiation of genetic mutations with the aid of X-Rays, in 1926. He was able to establish that the mutations in genes were a result of changes in isolated genes and chromosome breakages. With this discovery, he was known to be an internationally acclaimed geneticist.

Hermann Joseph Muller was a renowned geneticist whose works in genetics earned him much recognition. He demonstrated genetic mutations and hereditary transformations that can be caused by X-Rays. He was also successful in discovering artificially induced mutations in genes and its destructive effects.