Leslie Clarence Dunn (November 2, 1893 in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

– March 19, 1974) was a developmental geneticist at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. His early work with the mouse T-locus and established ideas of

gene interaction Epistasis is a phenomenon in genetics in which the effect of a gene mutation is dependent on the presence or absence of mutations in one or more other genes, respectively termed modifier genes. In other words, the effect of the mutation is dep ...

, fertility factors, and allelic distribution.

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

(2000)
"L. C. Dunn Biography"
Later work with other

model organism A model organism (often shortened to model) is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workin ...

s continued to contribute to developmental genetics. Dunn was also an activist, helping fellow scientists seek asylum during World War II, and a critic of

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

movements.Melinda Gormley
"Geneticist L.C. Dunn: Politics, Activism, and Community"
(2006 dissertation,

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

Biography

Dunn was born in

, in 1893, to Clarence Leslie Dunn and Mary Eliza Booth Dunn.Theodosius Dobzhansky
''Leslie Clarence Dunn, 1893-1974: A Biographical Memoir''
(National Academy of Sciences 1978) He earned a bachelor's degree from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

in 1915. Dunn served in the Harvard Regiment in France during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and after the war, returned to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

to complete his degree in 1920. After the war, he identified as a pacifist. He worked from 1920 to 1928 as a poultry geneticist at the

Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station The Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station (SAES) is an American agricultural experiment station operated by the University of Connecticut and founded in 1887. Part of UConn's College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources, the SAES direct ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, publishing almost fifty papers during this time. Dunn, along with colleague E. W. Sinnott, was the author of one of the foremost early genetics texts, ''Principles of Genetics'' (first published in 1925). In 1928 Dunn was invited to join

as a full professor in the Zoology Department. While there, he was renowned for his teaching, expanded his work somewhat into ''

Drosophila ''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species ...

'' (discovering mutations including ''

Minute The minute is a unit of time usually equal to (the first sexagesimal fraction) of an hour, or 60 seconds. In the UTC time standard, a minute on rare occasions has 61 seconds, a consequence of leap seconds (there is a provision to insert a nega ...

'' and ''

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

''), and influenced numerous students, included "outstanding" developmental biologists Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch and

Dorothea Bennett Dorothea Bennett (December 27, 1929 in Honolulu, Hawaii – August 16, 1990 in Houston, Texas) was a geneticist, known for the genetics of early mammalian development and for research into mammalian sperm surface structures and their role in ...

, and worked with

Ann Chester Chandley Ann Chester Chandley DSc, F.I.Biol., FRSE (died 19 February 2020) was an international cytogeneticist with the Medical Research Council unit which became the Human Genetics Unit at the University of Edinburgh. She became a Fellow of the Insti ...

. Dunn was married to Louise Porter, a

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

graduate, and the couple had two children, Robert Leslie Dunn (b. 1921) and Stephen Porter Dunn (b. 1928). Dunn and his family loved literature and poetry, as did Dunn's mother, and established a press (Coalbin Press) to publish occasional volumes of poetry. The younger son,

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

, was a

social anthropologist Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

and writer, publishing books such as ''The Peasants of Central Russia'' (1967) and ''Introduction to Soviet Ethnography'' (1974) (with his wife Ethel Deikman Dunn), ''Cultural Processes in the Baltic Area Under Soviet Rule'' (1966), and edited, translated, and taught. He died on March 19, 1974, at

Phelps Memorial Hospital Phelps Hospital, part of the Northwell Health system, is a general hospital located in Sleepy Hollow, New York Sleepy Hollow is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States. The village is located ...

North Tarrytown, New York Sleepy Hollow is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States. The village is located on the east bank of the Hudson River, about north of New York City, and is served by the Philipse Manor stop on ...

Significant papers and contributions

* Dunn, L.C. 1920. "Independent Genes in Mice", ''Genetics'', v.5, pp. 344–361. * Dunn, L.C. 1920. "Linkage in mice and rats", ''Genetics'', v.5, pp. 325–343. (Dunn's dissertation at Harvard) * Dunn, L.C. 1957. "Evidence of evolutionary forces leading to the spread of lethal genes in wild populations of house mice", ''Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA'' v.43, pp. 158–163. * Dunn, L. C. 1959. "Heredity and Evolution in Human Populations", v.75, pp. 117–192. * Dunn, L.C. 1964. "Abnormalities associated with a chromosome region in the mouse", ''Science'', v.144, pp. 260–263. * Dunn, L.C. and W.C. Morgan. 1952. "A mutable locus in wild populations of house mice", ''Am. Nat.'' v.86, pp. 321–323. * Dunn, L.C., H. Gruneberg, and G.D. Snell. 1940. "Report of the Committee on Mouse Genetics Nomenclature", ''J. Hered.'' v.31, pp. 505–506. * Dunn, L.C. 1951. ''Race and Biology: The Race Question in Modern Science'' (

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

, 1951; 3rd edition 1970) * ''Heredity, Race, and Society'' (1946; fourth edition 1972) * ''A Short History of Genetics'' (1965) * Organizer, with

Milislav Demerec Milislav Demerec (January 11, 1895 – April 12, 1966) was a Croatian-American geneticist, and the director of the Department of Genetics, Carnegie Institution of Washington IW now Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) from 1941 to 1960, re ...

, The Cold Spring Harbor Symposia, 1940s-1950s

Awards and honors

U.S. National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

(elected 1943) *

(1943) *

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

(1950) *

Norwegian Academy of Sciences The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...

* Italian Academia Pataviana * Founding member,

Genetics Society of America The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is a scholarly membership society of more than 5,500 genetics researchers and educators, established in 1931. The Society was formed from the reorganization of the Joint Genetics Sections of the American Soc ...

* President,

, 1932 * President,

American Society of Naturalists The American Society of Naturalists was founded in 1883 and is one of the oldest professional societies dedicated to the biological sciences in North America. The purpose of the Society is "to advance and diffuse knowledge of organic evolution and o ...

, 1960 * President,

American Society of Human Genetics The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), founded in 1948, is a professional membership organization for specialists in human genetics. As of 2009, the organization had approximately 8,000 members. The Society's members include researchers, a ...

, 1961

Notes

Further research

L. C. Dunn Biography
* William deJong-Lambert, ''The Cold War Politics of Genetic Research: An Introduction to the Lysenko Affair'', Chapter 1, Sections 1.4: "Julian Huxley and Leslie Clarence Dunn" and 1.5 "

J. B. S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...

, and Dunn's Visit to the Soviet Union". *

Theodosius Dobzhansky Theodosius Grigorievich Dobzhansky (russian: Феодо́сий Григо́рьевич Добржа́нский; uk, Теодо́сій Григо́рович Добржа́нський; January 25, 1900 – December 18, 1975) was a prominent ...

''Leslie Clarence Dunn, 1893-1974: A Biographical Memoir''
(National Academy of Sciences 1978) * Melinda Gormley
"Geneticist L.C. Dunn: Politics, Activism, and Community"
(Oregon State University PhD Thesis 2007) *

Michael Gordin Michael Dan Gordin (born November 3, 1974) is an American science historian and Slavist. Born in New Jersey, Gordin studied at Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in 1996 and a doctorate in 2001. From 2003 he was at Princeton University, ...

''How Lysenkoism Became Pseudoscience: Dobzhansky to Velikovsky'', Journal of the History of Biology (2012) 45:443-468. * M. Gormley
"Scientific Discrimination and the Activist Scientist"
''J. Hist. Biol.'', v.42, n.1, pp. 33–72 (Spring 2009). *

Mary F. Lyon Mary Frances Lyon (15 May 1925 – 25 December 2014) was an English geneticist best known for her discovery of X-chromosome inactivation, an important biological phenomenon. Early life and education Mary Lyon was born on 15 May 1925 in Norwic ...

"L. C. Dunn and Mouse Genetic Mapping"
''Genetics'' (1990). "Perspectives: Anecdotal, Historical and Critical Commentaries on Genetics", edited by James F. Crow and William F. Dove.

A Guide to the Genetics Collections at the

: Major Collections. See als
L. C. Dunn Papers - Table of Contents
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, L. C. American geneticists Columbia University faculty 1893 births 1974 deaths Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Dartmouth College alumni Harvard University alumni American military personnel of World War I United States Army soldiers Scientists from Buffalo, New York Members of the American Philosophical Society Genetics (journal) editors