emigh@ncsugn.ncsu.edu (Ted H. Emigh) (03/04/88)
I have just received word that Sewall Wright is dead at age 99. He broke his hip while walking and never recovered. Sewall Wright was one of the greats in population genetics and evolution, contributing in MANY areas. The debates between Wright and Fisher in the 1920's and 1930's helped to form a discipline. -- Ted H. Emigh, Dept. Genetics and Statistics, NCSU, Raleigh, NC uucp: mcnc!ncsuvx!ncsugn!emigh internet: emigh%ncsugn.ncsu.edu BITNET: NEMIGH@TUCC @ncsuvx.ncsu.edu:emigh@ncsugn.ncsu.edu
felsenst@entropy.ms.washington.edu (Joe Felsenstein) (03/04/88)
In article <3086@ncsugn.ncsu.edu> emigh@ncsugn.UUCP (Ted H. Emigh) writes: >I have just received word that Sewall Wright is dead at age 99. He broke >his hip while walking and never recovered. > >Sewall Wright was one of the greats in population genetics and evolution, >contributing in MANY areas. The debates between Wright and Fisher in the >1920's and 1930's helped to form a discipline. > >-- >Ted H. Emigh, Dept. Genetics and Statistics, NCSU, Raleigh, NC I am sorry to hear of Sewall Wright's death. Sewall Wright was born on December 21, 1889 (which meant that he would have been 98, not 99). Nobody really believed he would ever die. He survived his great (unfriendly) adversary R. A. Fisher by 26 years and the other great figure of theoretical population genetics, J. B. S. Haldane (with whom he was not on unfriendly terms), by 24 years. The definitive scientific biography of Wright, "Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology" by William H. Provine, was published recently. It is a brilliant and well-written book that every student of evolution should read. There is too much to say about Wright, who invented inbreeding coefficients, effective population size, path coefficients, and made many, many other contributions to evolutionary theory. For those interested in molecular biology, I should also point out that Wright worked for many years on "physiological genetics", working out the interactions of coat color genes in guinea pigs. In 1917 he wrote a number of papers in Journal of Heredity, examining coat color gene interaction, and concluding that the interactions were best explained if one assumed that what each gene did was control an enzyme. This was over twenty years before Beadle and Tatum's "one gene, one enzyme" paper. In the interim Wright regularly reviewed "physiological genetics" in a series of papers. Beadle and Tatum were well aware of Wright's work and cited it in their paper. Wright had trouble seeing and hearing in recent years, but was in remarkably good health otherwise (a tribute to the efficacy of his habit of walking vigorously every day) and I am told that he currently had a paper in press (replying to some points raised by Will Provine in the biography). He was sometimes difficult to communicate with, but that was always true! We will all miss Sewall. I suspect that in the next few weeks we will see quite a few obituaries. There should be a Sewall Wright centennial celebration in Madison in late 1989. It is a pity that he won't be there to deliver the keynote speech as we had all hoped. ----- Joe Felsenstein, Dept. of Genetics SK-50, Univ. of Washington, Seattle WA 98195 BITNET: uw-entropy!uw-evolution!joe%uw-beaver.ARPA@UWAVM or uw-entropy!uw-evolution!joe%uw-beaver.ARPA@UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU ARPANET: uw-entropy!uw-evolution!joe@beaver.cs.washington.edu or uw-evolution!joe%entropy.ms@beaver.cs.washington.edu UUCP: ... uw-beaver!uw-entropy!uw-evolution!joe