Curt Stern

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Curt Stern (August 30, 1902 - October 23, 1981) was a German-American geneticist. He made several important genetic discoveries, demonstrating chromosomal crossover in Drosophila weeks after Barbara McClintock and Harriet Creighton had done so [with maize] in 1931. He demonstrated that there were multiple genes on the Drosophila Y chromosome and described the mechanism of dosage compensation. During World War II he led research for the American government on low dose radiation safety; his group concluded that there is no "safe" threshold below which radiation is not harmful. After the War his research focused on human genetics; he wrote the very successful pioneering US textbook Principles of Human Genetics, and studied what is now known as gene regulation. Though not a physician, he engaged in clinical work on human genetics. He was instrumental in re-founding human genetics on a non-racist basis contrasting with the pre-World War II German and American traditions in the subject. Curt Stern was also a signatory of the 1950 UNESCO statement The Race Question. He was a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, where he had numerous doctoral students.

[edit] References

• Burian, Richard M. 2000. Stern, Curt. American National Biography Online