Malcolm Robert Irwin (2 March 1897,

Artesian, South Dakota Artesian is a town in Sanborn County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 129 at the 2020 census. History When the first settlement at Artesian was made in 1883, it was called "Diana". A post office called Diana was established in 1 ...

– 12 October 1987,

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

) was an American agronomist and pioneering immunogeneticist.

Education and career

He received his bachelor's degree in agriculture in 1920 from Iowa State College, later renamed

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

. From 1921 to 1924 he was a teacher at the

American Farm School The American Farm School (Greek: Αμερικανική Γεωργική Σχολή) is an independent, nonprofit educational institution located in Thessaloniki, Greece. The school was founded in 1904 by American missionary John Henry House to s ...

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

(Greece). Irvin then began graduate study under Ernest W. Lindström (1891–1948) at the recently established department of genetics of Iowa State University and received his Ph.D. there in 1928. With the support of a National Research Council Fellowship, he studied from 1928 to 1929 with

William E. Castle William Ernest Castle (October 25, 1867 – June 3, 1962) was an early United States, American geneticist. Early years William Ernest Castle was born on a farm in Ohio and took an early interest in natural history. He graduated in 1889 from Deni ...

at the Bussey Institution of

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 ...

and from 1929 to 1930 with Leslie Tillotson Webster at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. At the Rockefeller Institute he was influenced by the immunohematologist

Karl Landsteiner Karl Landsteiner (; 14 June 1868 – 26 June 1943) was an Austrian-born American biologist, physician, and immunologist. He distinguished the main blood groups in 1900, having developed the modern system of classification of blood groups from ...

and by the immunochemists Oswald Avery and

Michael Heidelberger Michael Heidelberger (April 29, 1888 – June 25, 1991) was an American immunologist, often regarded as the father of modern immunology. He and Oswald Avery showed that the polysaccharides of pneumococcus are antigens, enabling him to show tha ...

. Irwin became in 1930 an assistant professor of genetics at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

, where the only two other faculty members of the genetics department were L. J. Cole and R. A. Brink. There Irwin was from 1936 to 1939 an associate professor and from 1939 to 1965 a full professor of genetics. From 1951 to 1965 he was also the chair of the genetics department, building powerful expertise in immunogenetics and founding a "school" of blood group scientists. He recruited, among others,

Sewall Wright Sewall Green Wright FRS(For) Honorary FRSE (December 21, 1889March 3, 1988) was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory and also for his work on path analysis. He was a founder of population genetics alongsi ...

and Joshua Lederberg. Starting in 1930, Irwin and his coworkers developed reliable and standardizable kits for blood group test sera to characterize the cellular antigens of the red blood cells in cattle, sheep, and pigs. By means of blood group analysis, controversial cases of descent could now be clarified. Irwin also investigated the immunological processes after tissue transplantation, as well as cellular antibody production. These results have been of tremendous benefit to human medicine.D.O. Schmidt, München: Hermann-von-Nathusius-Medaille für Prof. Dr. Malcolm Robert Irwin, Madison, USA. In: Züchtungskunde, 37, 1965, 4, 241-243.

Awards and honors

* 1938 —

Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal The Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal is awarded by the U.S. United States National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences "for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology study published in a three- to five-year period." Named after Daniel Gir ...

of the American Academy of Sciences * 1950 — election to membership in the

United States 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 Nati ...

* 1962 — Morrison Award from the

American Society of Animal Science The American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) is a non-profit professional organization for the advancement of livestock, companion animals, exotic animals and meat science. Founded in 1908, ASAS is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. ASAS member ...

* 1965 —

Hermann von Nathusius Medal The Hermann von Nathusius Medal was endowed in 1928 by the German Society for Animal Breeding (DGfZ) in memory of Hermann Engelhard von Nathusius, an important German breeder. It is awarded, usually annually, to those who have excelled in the ar ...

of the ''Deutsche Gesellschaft für Züchtungskunde'' ( German Society for Animal Breeding); awarded "In recognition of his groundbreaking work in the field of immunogenetics and the study of blood types in domesticated animals"

Selected publications

The inheritance of resistance to the Danysz bacillus in the rat
Genetics. 14(4):337–365. 1929 * Dissimilarities between antigenic properties of red blood cells of dove hybrid and parental genera. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 29:850–851. 1932 * with B. A. Beach and F. N. Bell: Studies on the bactericidal action of bovine whole blood and serum towards Brucella abortus and Brucella suis. J. Infect. Dis. 58:15-22. 1936 * Immuno-genetic studies of species relationships in columbidae. J. Gen. 35(3):351–373. 1938
A genetic analysis of species differences in Columbidae
Genetics 24(5):709–721. 1939 * with W. E. Briles and W. H. McGibbon
On multiple alleles effecting cellular antigens in the chicken
Genetics 35(6):633–652. 1950 * with Clyde Stormont and R. D. Owen
The B and C systems of bovine blood groups
Genetics 36(2):134–161. 1951

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irwin, Malcolm Robert American agronomists Iowa State University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American geneticists 1897 births 1987 deaths Bussey Institution alumni 20th-century agronomists