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Sewall Green Wright (December 21, 1889 – March 3, 1988) was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory and also for his work on path analysis. Events 69 - The end of the Year of the four emperors: Following Galba, Otho and Vitellius, Vespasian Year 1889 ( MDCCCLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1284 - Statute of Rhuddlan incorporated the Principality of Wales into England 1575 - Indian Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) A geneticist is a scientist who studies Genetics, the science of Heredity and variation of Organisms A geneticist can be employed as a researcher In Statistics, path analysis is a type of multiple Regression analysis. With R. A. Fisher and J.B.S. Haldane, he was a founder of theoretical population genetics. Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, FRS ( 17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was an English Statistician, Evolutionary John Burdon Sanderson Haldane FRS ( 5 November 1892 &ndash 1 December 1964) known as Jack (but who used 'J He is the discoverer of the inbreeding coefficient and of methods of computing it in pedigrees. In Population genetics, Sewall Wright 's coefficient of relationship or coefficient of relatedness or relatedness or r is He extended this work to populations, computing the amount of inbreeding of members of populations as a result of random genetic drift, and he and Fisher pioneered methods for computing the distribution of gene frequencies among populations as a result of the interaction of natural selection, mutation, migration and genetic drift. In Population genetics, genetic drift is the accumulation of random events that change the makeup of a gene pool slightly but often compound over time Allele frequency is a measure of the relative frequency of an Allele at a genetic place(locus in a Population. Natural selection is the process by which favorable Heritable traits become more common in successive Generations of a Population of In biology mutations are changes to the Nucleotide sequence of the Genetic material of an organism The work of Fisher, Wright, and Haldane on theoretical population genetics was a major step in the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis of genetics with evolution. Wright also made major contributions to mammalian genetics and biochemical genetics.

Contents

Biography

Sewall Wright was born in Melrose, Massachusetts to Philip Green Wright and Elizabeth Quincy Sewall Wright. Melrose is a city located in the Greater Boston metropolitan area and Middlesex County Massachusetts. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The family moved three years later after Philip accepted a teaching job at Lombard College, a Universalist college in Galesburg, Illinois. Lombard College was a college located in Galesburg Illinois. History Lombard College was founded in 1853 by the Universalist Church as the Universalism can be classified as a Religion, Theology and Philosophy that generally holds all persons and creatures are related to God or the Divine and

He was the youngest of three gifted brothers – the others being the aeronautical engineer Theodore Paul Wright and the political scientist Quincy Wright. Aerospace engineering is the branch of Engineering behind the design construction and science of Aircraft and Spacecraft. Theodore Paul Wright ( May 25, 1895 &ndash August 21, 1970) was a U This is a list of notable political scientists See the List of political theorists for those who study politics without using the Scientific method. Philip Quincy Wright ( 28 December 1890 – 17 October 1970) was an American Political scientist known for his pioneering From an early age Wright had a love and talent for mathematics and biology. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Foundations of modern biology There are five unifying principles Wright attended Galesburg High School and graduated in 1906. Galesburg High School is a public High school in Galesburg Illinois. Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting He then enrolled in Lombard College where his father taught, to study mathematics. Lombard College was a college located in Galesburg Illinois. History Lombard College was founded in 1853 by the Universalist Church as the Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and He was influenced greatly by Professor Wilhelmine Entemann Key, one of the first women to receive a Ph.D. in biology. A doctorate is an Academic degree that indicates the highest level of academic achievement Foundations of modern biology There are five unifying principles Wright received his Ph. D. from Harvard University, where he worked with the pioneering mammalian geneticist William Ernest Castle investigating the inheritance of coat colors in mammals. Professor William Ernest Castle ( October 25 1867 &mdash June 3 1962) was an early American geneticist. Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands He worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture until 1925, when he joined the Department of Zoology at the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago is a Private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. He remained there until his retirement in 1955, when he moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received many honors in his long career, including the National Medal of Science, the Balzan Prize, and the Darwin Medal of the Royal Society. The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organisations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities natural The Darwin Medal is given by the Royal Society every even year for "work of acknowledged distinction in the broad area of Biology in which Charles Darwin The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660 He was a member of the National Academy of Science and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS is a corporation in the United States whose members serve Pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660

Wright married Louise Lane Williams (1895-1975) in 1921. They had three children: Richard, Robert, and Elizabeth.

Scientific achievements and credits

His papers on inbreeding, mating systems, and genetic drift make him a principal founder of theoretical population genetics, along with R. A. Fisher and J. B. S. Haldane. Inbreeding is breeding between close Relatives whether plant or animal In Sociobiology and Behavioural ecology, a mating system is any of the ways in which animal societies are structured in relation to sexual behavior In Population genetics, genetic drift is the accumulation of random events that change the makeup of a gene pool slightly but often compound over time Population genetics is the study of the Allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four evolutionary forces Natural selection, Genetic Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, FRS ( 17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was an English Statistician, Evolutionary John Burdon Sanderson Haldane FRS ( 5 November 1892 &ndash 1 December 1964) known as Jack (but who used 'J Their theoretical work is the origin of the modern evolutionary synthesis or neodarwinian synthesis. Wright was the inventor/discoverer of the inbreeding coefficient and F-statistics, standard tools in population genetics. In Population genetics, Sewall Wright 's coefficient of relationship or coefficient of relatedness or relatedness or r is He was the chief developer of the mathematical theory of genetic drift, which is sometimes known as the Sewall Wright effect, cumulative stochastic changes in gene frequencies that arise from random births, deaths, and Mendelian segregations in reproduction. In Population genetics, genetic drift is the accumulation of random events that change the makeup of a gene pool slightly but often compound over time Allele frequency is a measure of the relative frequency of an Allele at a genetic place(locus in a Population. Wright was convinced that the interaction of genetic drift and the other evolutionary forces was important in the process of adaptation. In Population genetics, genetic drift is the accumulation of random events that change the makeup of a gene pool slightly but often compound over time He described the relationship between genotype or phenotype and fitness as fitness surfaces or fitness landscapes. Fitness (often denoted w in Population genetics models is a central concept in evolutionary theory. In Evolutionary biology, fitness landscapes or adaptive landscapes are used to visualize the relationship between Genotypes (or Phenotypes and On these landscapes fitness was the height, plotted against horizontal axes representing the allele frequencies or the average phenotypes of the population. Allele frequency is a measure of the relative frequency of an Allele at a genetic place(locus in a Population. Natural selection would lead to a population climbing the nearest peak, while genetic drift would cause random wandering. Natural selection is the process by which favorable Heritable traits become more common in successive Generations of a Population of In Population genetics, genetic drift is the accumulation of random events that change the makeup of a gene pool slightly but often compound over time

Wright's explanation for stasis was that organisms come to occupy adaptive peaks. In Evolutionary biology, fitness landscapes or adaptive landscapes are used to visualize the relationship between Genotypes (or Phenotypes and In order to evolve to another, higher peak, the species would first have to pass through a valley of maladaptive intermediate stages. This could happen by genetic drift if the population is small enough. In Population genetics, genetic drift is the accumulation of random events that change the makeup of a gene pool slightly but often compound over time If a species was divided into small populations, some could find higher peaks. If there was some gene flow between the populations, these adaptations could spread to the rest of the species. In Population genetics, gene flow (also known as gene migration) is the transfer of Alleles of Genes from one Population to another This was Wright's shifting balance theory of evolution. Wright's Shifting balance theory is a theory by Sewall Wright used to model Evolution using both drift and selection There has been much skepticism among evolutionary biologists as to whether these rather delicate conditions hold often in natural populations. Wright had a long standing and bitter debate about this with R. A. Fisher, who felt that most populations in nature were too large for these effects of genetic drift to be important. Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, FRS ( 17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was an English Statistician, Evolutionary

Wright strongly influenced Jay Lush, who was the most influential figure in introducing quantitative genetics into animal and plant breeding. Jay Laurence Lush ( Shambaugh Iowa -) was a pioneering animal Geneticist who made important contributions to livestock breeding Quantitative genetics is the study of continuous traits (such as height or weight and its underlying mechanisms This article focuses on selective breeding in domesticated animals Plant breeding is the art and science of changing the genetics of plants for the benefit of humankind Wright's statistical method of path analysis, which he invented in 1921 and which was one of the first methods using a graphical model, is still widely used in social science. In Statistics, path analysis is a type of multiple Regression analysis. Year 1921 ( MCMXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar of the Gregorian calendar In Probability theory, Statistics, and Machine learning, a graphical model (GM is a graph that represents independencies among Random variables He was a hugely influential reviewer of manuscripts, as one of the most frequent reviewers for Genetics. Such was his reputation that he was often credited with reviews that he did not write.

He did major work on the genetics of guinea pigs, and many of his students became influential in the development of mammalian genetics. The Guinea pig (also commonly called the cavy after its scientific name Cavia porcellus) is a species of Rodent belonging to the family Caviidae He appreciated as early as 1917 that genes acted by controlling enzymes. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Enzymes are Biomolecules that catalyze ( ie increase the rates of Chemical reactions Almost all enzymes are Proteins

Wright and philosophy

Wright was one of the few geneticists of his time to venture into philosophy. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language He found a union of concept in Charles Hartshorne, who became a lifelong friend and philosophical collaborator. Charles Hartshorne ( June 5, 1897 &ndash October 9, 2000) was a prominent American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the Philosophy Wright believed that the birth of the consciousness was not due to a mysterious property of increasing complexity, but rather an inherent property, therefore implying these properties were in the most elementary particles.

Legacy

Wright and Fisher were the key figures in the neodarwinian synthesis that brought genetics and evolution together. Their work was essential to the contributions of Dobzhansky, Mayr, Simpson, Julian Huxley, and Stebbins. Theodosius Grygorovych Dobzhansky, also known Ernst Walter Mayr ( July 5, 1904, Kempten, Germany &ndash February 3, 2005, Bedford Massachusetts U George Gaylord Simpson ( June 16, 1902 &ndash October 6, 1984) was an American Paleontologist. Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS ( 22 June 1887 &ndash 14 February 1975) was an English Evolutionary biologist George Ledyard Stebbins Jr (January 6 1906 &ndash January 19 2000 was an American The neodarwinian synthesis was the most important development in evolutionary biology after Darwin. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life Wright also had a major effect on the development of mammalian genetics and biochemical genetics.

Trivia

Since Wright developed the methods used for assessing the degree of inbreeding and its effects, it is notable that his own parents were first cousins. As a child he helped his father and brother print and publish an early book of poems by his father's student Carl Sandburg. Carl August Sandburg ( January 6, 1878 &ndash July 22, 1967) was an American writer and editor best known for his Poetry

References

Bibliography

Books by Wright


External links

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