Edmund Beecher Wilson

Infobox_Scientist
name =Edmund Beecher Wilson

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image_size = 150px
caption = Edmund Beecher Wilson
birth_date = birth date|1856|10|19|mf=y
birth_place = Geneva, Illinois
death_date = death date and age|1939|3|3|1856|10|19|mf=y
death_place =
residence =
citizenship =
nationality = United States
ethnicity =
field = Zoology
Genetics
work_institution = Williams College
MIT
Bryn Mawr College
Columbia University
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known_for = XY sex-determination system
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Edmund Beecher Wilson (October 19, 1856 – March 3, 1939) was a pioneering American zoologist and geneticist.

Wilson was born in Geneva, Illinois, and graduated from Yale in 1878. He earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins in 1881.

He was a lecturer at Williams College in 1883-84 and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1884-85. He served as professor of biology at Bryn Mawr College from 1885 to 1891.

He spent the balance of his career at Columbia University where he was successively adjunct professor of biology (1891-94), professor of invertebrate zoology (1894 - 1897), and professor of zoology (from 1897).

Wilson is credited as America's first cell biologist. In 1898 he used the similarity in embryos to describe phylogenetic relationships. By observing spiral cleavage in molluscs, flatworms and annelids he concluded that the same organs came from the same group of cells and concluded that all these organisms must have a common ancestor.

He also discovered the chromosomal XY sex-determination system in 1905—that males have XY and females XX sex chromosomes. Nettie Stevens independently made the same discovery the same year.

Professor Wilson published many papers on embryology, and served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1913.

Works

* "An Introduction to General Biology" (1887), with W. T. Sedgwick
* "The Embryology of the Earthworm" (1889)
* "Amphioxus, and the Mosaic Theory of Development" (1893)
* "Atlas of Fertilization and Karyokinesis" (1895)
* "The Cell in Development and Inheritance" (1896; second edition, 1915; third edition, 1925)

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References

*Al-Awqati, Q. 2002. [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/Magazine/Fall2002/Wilson.html Edmund Beecher Wilson: America's First Cell Biologist] . Living Legacies, Columbia University.
*Gilbert, S. F. 2003. [http://www.devbio.com/article.php?ch=23&id=261 Edmund Beecher Wilson and Frank R. Lillie and the relationship between evolution and development] , "Developmental Biology", Seventh edition, Sinauer
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Kingsland
first=Sharon E
authorlink=
year=2007|month=Sep.

title=Maintaining continuity through a scientific revolution: a rereading of E. B. Wilson and T. H. Morgan on sex determination and Mendelism
journal=Isis; an international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences
volume=98
issue=3
pages=468–88
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 17970422
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*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Dröscher
first=Ariane
authorlink=
year=2002|month=.

title=Edmund B. Wilson's the cell and cell theory between 1896 and 1925
journal=History and philosophy of the life sciences
volume=24
issue=3-4
pages=357–89
publisher = | location =
pmid = 15045830
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =

doi=10.1080/03919710210001714473
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Baxter
first=A L
authorlink=
year=1977|month=Sep.

title=E. B. Wilson's "destruction" of the germ-layer theory
journal=Isis; an international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences
volume=68
issue=243
pages=363–74
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 336580
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Baxter
first=A L
authorlink=
year=1976|month=.
title=Edmund B. Wilson as a preformationist: some reasons for his acceptance of the chromosome theory
journal=Journal of the history of biology
volume=9
issue=1
pages=29–57
publisher = | location =
pmid = 11615633
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
doi=10.1007/BF00129172

Persondata
NAME= Wilson, Edmund Beecher
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=American zoologist, geneticist
DATE OF BIRTH= October 19, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH= Geneva, Illinois
DATE OF DEATH= March 3, 1939
PLACE OF DEATH=