Chrono-Biographical Sketch: Edmund W. Sinnott

Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Sinnott, Edmund Ware (United States 1888-1968)
plant morphology

Photo courtesy of the Botanical Society of America.

Sinnott was centrally interested in plant genetics and morphology, in which subjects he was recognized as one of the foremost figures of his time. Perhaps his most influential work in that area involved how genetics variously controlled the relationships between cells and organs in different species of plants. Many of his earlier writings, however, also display a concern for biogeographic subjects; he was interested, for example, in endemism and related biogeographic considerations, including the "age and area" hypothesis of J. C. Willis. Though he apparently had never embraced a wholly mechanistic view of the subjects of his studies, in his later years especially he espoused a holistic view of biology, writing several books designed for a lay readership that sought to link science to considerations of philosophy, religion, and society.

Life Chronology

--born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 5 February 1888.
--1908: A.B., biology, Harvard University
--1910: M.A., Harvard
--1910-1911: carries out botanical studies in Australia as a Sheldon Fellow
--1913: Ph.D., Harvard
--1913-1915: works at the Bussey Institution, Harvard, under I. W. Bailey
--1915-1928: professor of botany and genetics, Connecticut Agricultural College
--1925: publishes the first edition of his Principles of Genetics
--1926: made editor of the American Journal of Botany
--1928-1939: professor, botany department, Barnard College, Columbia University
--1931-1934: president, Torrey Botanical Club
--1936: elected to the National Academy of Sciences
--1937: president, Botanical Society of America
--1939-1940: chairman, botany department, Columbia University
--1940-1950: director of the Marsh Botanical Garden, Yale University
--1940-1956: professor of botany, Yale
--1945: president, American Society of Naturalists
--1945-1956: Director of the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale
--1948: president, American Association for the Advancement of Science
--1950-1956: Dean of the Graduate School, Yale
--1960: publishes his Plant Morphogenesis
--dies at New Haven, Connecticut, on 6 January 1968.

For Additional Information, See:

--Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences (U.S.A.), Vol. 54 (1983).
--American National Biography, Vol. 20 (1999).
--National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. H (1952).
--McGraw-Hill Modern Scientists and Engineers, Vol. 3 (1980).
--Taxonomic Literature, Vol. 5 (1985).
--Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 95(6) (1968): 662-674.
--Scientific Monthly, Vol. 66(1) (1948): 5-8.
--Current Biography Yearbook 1948.
--Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement Eight (1988).

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