Thomas Hunt Morgan (September 25, 1866 – December 4, 1945) was an American geneticist and embryologist. Morgan received his B.S. from the State College of Kentucky (University of Kentucky) and later earned his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1890, and worked on embryology during his tenure at Bryn Mawr. Following the rediscovery of Mendelian inheritance in 1900, Morgan's research moved to the study of mutation in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In his famous Fly Room at Columbia University Morgan was able to demonstrate that genes are carried on chromosomes and are the mechanical basis of heredity. These discoveries formed the basis of the modern science of genetics. When he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 he was the first person awarded the Prize for genetics, for demonstrating hereditary transmission mechanisms in Drosophila melanogaster.

During his distinguished career Morgan wrote 22 books and 370 scientific papers, and as a result of his work Drosophila became a major model organisms in contemporary genetics. The Division of Biology he established at the California Institute of Technology produced seven Nobel Prize winners.

Early life

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Morgan was born in Lexington, Kentucky to Charlton Hunt Morgan and Ellen Key Howard. His family was part of a long line of Southern aristocracy, Thomas Hunt Morgan was a nephew of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and his great-grandfather John Wesley Hunt had been the first millionaire west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was also a great-grandson of Francis Scott Key author of the "Star Spangled Banner". However following the Civil War the family had fallen on harder times with the loss of civil and property rights for those who aided the Confederacy. His father also had difficulty finding work in politics and spent much of his time coordinating veterans reunions.

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