List of geneticists
This is a list of people who have made notable contributions to genetics. The growth and development of genetics represents the work of many people. This list of geneticists is therefore by no means complete. Contributors of great distinction to genetics are not yet on the list.
A
- Dagfinn Aarskog (born 1928), Norwegian pediatrician and geneticist, described Aarskog-Scott syndrome
- Jon Aase (born 1936), US dysmorphologist, described Aase syndrome, expert on fetal alcohol syndrome
- John Abelson (born c. 1939), US biochemist, studies of machinery and mechanism of RNA splicing
- Susan L. Ackerman, US neurogeneticist, genes controlling brain development and neuron survival
- Jerry Adams (born 1940), US molecular biologist in Australia, hematopoietic genetics and cancer
- Bruce Alberts (born 1938), US biochemist, phage worker, studied DNA replication and cell division
- William Allan (1881–1943), US country doctor, pioneered human genetics
- C. David Allis (born 1951), US biologist with a fascination for chromatin
- Carl-Henry Alström (1907–1993), Swedish psychiatrist, described genetic disease: Alstrom syndrome
- Sidney Altman (born 1939), Canadian-US biophysicist who won Nobel Prize for catalytic functions of RNA
- Cecil A. Alport (1880–1959),UK internist, identified Alport syndrome (hereditary nephritis and deafness)
- David Altshuler (born c. 1965), US endocrinologist and geneticist, the genetics of type 2 diabetes
- Bruce Ames (born 1928), US molecular geneticist, created Ames test to screen chemicals for mutagenicity
- D. Bernard Amos (1923–2003), UK-US immunologist who studied the genetics of individuality
- Edgar Anderson (1897–1969), eminent US botanical geneticist
- E.G. ("Andy") Anderson, US Drosophila and maize geneticist
- William French Anderson (born 1936), US worker in gene therapy
- Corino Andrade (1906–2005), Portuguese neurologist and clinical geneticist
- Tim Anson (1901–1968), US molecular biologist, proposed protein folding a reversible two-state reaction
- Stylianos E. Antonarakis (born 1951), US-Greek medical geneticist, genotypic and phenotypic variation
- Werner Arber (born 1929), Swiss microbiologist, Nobel Prize for discovery of restriction endonucleases
- Michael Ashburner (born 1942), British Drosophila geneticist and polymath
- William Astbury (1898–1961), UK molecular biologist, X-ray crystallography of proteins and DNA
- Giuseppe Attardi, Italian-US molecular biologist, genetics of human mitochondrial function
- Charlotte Auerbach (1899–1994), German-born British pioneer in mutagenesis
- Oswald Avery (1877–1955), Canadian-born US co-discoverer that DNA is the genetic material
- Richard Axel (born 1946) US physician-scientist, Nobel Prize for genetic analysis of olfactory system
- Austin Haddock(born 1992) US Dna Scientist
B
- E. B. Babcock (1877–1954), US plant geneticist, pioneered genetic analysis of genus Crepis
- Edouard-Gérard Balbiani (1823–1899), French embryologist who found chromosome puffs now called Balbiani rings
- David Baltimore (born 1938), US biologist, Nobel Prize for the discovery of reverse transcriptase
- Guido Barbujani (born 1955), Italian population geneticist and evolutionary biologist
- Murray Barr (1908–1995), Canadian scientist, first saw Barr body in cells due to inactive X chromosome
- Cornelia Bargmann, US, molecular neurogeneticist studying the C. elegans brain
- David P. Bartel (B.A. 1982), US geneticist, discovered many microRNAs regulating gene expression
- William Bateson (1861–1926), British geneticist who coined the term "genetics"
- E. Baur (1875–1933), German geneticist, botanist, discovered inheritance of plasmids
- George Beadle (1903–1989), US Neurospora geneticist and Nobel Prize-winner
- Peter Emil Becker (1908–2000), German human geneticist, described Becker's muscular dystrophy
- Jon Beckwith, US microbiologist and geneticist, isolated first gene from a bacterial chromosome
- Peter Beighton (born 1934) UK/South Africa medical geneticist, first warned of economy class syndrome
- Julia Bell (1879–1979), English geneticist who documented inheritance of many diseases
- John Belling (1866–1933), English cytogeneticist who developed staining technique for chromosomes
- Baruj Benacerraf (born 1920), Venezuelan-US immunologist who won Nobel Prize for human leukocyte antigen system
- Kurt Benirschke (born 1924), German-US pathologist, comparative cytogenetics, twinning in armadillos
- Seymour Benzer (born 1921), US molecular biologist and pioneer of neurogenetics
- List item Dorothea Bennett (1929–1990) US geneticist, Pioneer of developmental genetics
- Paul Berg (born 1926), US biochemist and Nobel Prize-winner for basic research on nucleic acids
- J. D. Bernal (1901–1971), Irish physicist and pioneer X-ray crystallographer
- James Birchler, Drosophila and Maize geneticists and cytogenticist.
- J. Michael Bishop (born 1936), US microbial immunogeneticist, Nobel Prize-winner for oncogenes
- Elizabeth Blackburn (born 1948), Australo-US biologist, Lasker Award and Nobel Prize for telomeres and telomerase
- Günter Blobel (born 1936), German-US biologist, Nobel Prize for protein targeting (address tags on proteins)
- David Blow (1931–2004), British biophysicist who helped develop X-ray crystallography of proteins
- Baruch Blumberg (Barry Blumberg) (born 1925), US physician and Nobel Prize-winner on hepatitis B
- Julia Bodmer (1934–2001), British geneticist, key figure in discovery and definition of the HLA system
- Walter Bodmer (born 1936), German-UK human population geneticist, immunogeneticist, cancer research
- James Bonner (1910–1996), far-ranging US molecular biologist, into histones, chromatin, nucleic acids
- David Botstein (born 1942), Swiss-born US molecular geneticist, brother of Leon Botstein
- Theodor Boveri (1862–1915), German biologist and cytogeneticist
- Peter Bowen (1932–1988), Canadian medical geneticist
- Herb Boyer (born 1936), US, created transgenic bacteria inserting human insulin gene into E. coli
- Paul D. Boyer (born 1918), US biochemist and Nobel Prize-winner
- Jean Brachet (1909–1998), Belgian biochemist, made key contributions to fathoming roles of RNA
- Roscoe Brady US physician-scientist at NIH, studies of genetic neurological metabolic disorders
- Sydney Brenner (born 1927), British molecular biologist and Nobel Prize-winner
- Calvin Bridges (1889–1938), US geneticist, non-disjunction proof that chromosomes contain genes
- R.A. Brink (1897–1984), Canadian-US plant geneticist and breeder, studied paramutation, transposons
- Roy Britten (born 1919) US molecular and evolutionary biologist, discovered and studied junk DNA
- John Brookfield Drosophila population geneticist.
- Michael Stuart Brown (born 1941) US geneticist and Nobel Prize-winner on cholesterol metabolism
- Manuel Buchwald (born 1940), Peruvian-born Canadian medical geneticist and molecular geneticist
- Linda Buck (born 1947) US biologist, Nobel Prize for post-doc work (with Axel) cloning olfactory receptors
- James Bull, US molecular biologist and phage worker, evolution of sex determining mechanisms
- Luther Burbank (1849–1926), US botanist, horticulturist, pioneer in agricultural science
- Macfarlane Burnet (1899–1985), Australian biologist, Nobel Prize for immunological tolerance
- Cyril Burt (1883–1971), British educational psychologist, did debated mental and behavioral twin study
C
- John Cairns (born 1922), UK physician-scientist, showed bacterial DNA one molecule with replicating fork
- Allan Campbell, US microbiologist and geneticist, pioneering work on phage lambda
- Howard Cann, US pediatrician and geneticist, human population genetics at Stanford and CEPH in Paris
- Antonio Cao (born 1929), Italian pediatrician and medical geneticist, expert on the thalassemias
- Mario Capecchi (born 1937), Italian-born US molecular geneticist, co-invented the knock-out mouse, Nobel prize for Medicine, 2007
- Elof Axel Carlson, US geneticist and eminent historian of science
- Hampton Carson (1914–2004), US population geneticist, studied cytogenetics and evolution of Drosophila
- Tom Caskey (born c. 1938), US internist, human geneticist and entrepreneur; biochemical diseases
- Torbjörn Caspersson (1910–1997), Swedish cytogeneticist, revealed human chromosome banding
- William B. Castle (1897–1990), US hematologist, work on hereditary spherocytosis, sickle cell anemia
- William E. Castle (1867–1962), US geneticist, inspired T.H. Morgan, father of William B. Castle
- David Catcheside (1907–1994) UK plant geneticist, expert on genetic recombination, active in Australia
- Bruce Cattanach (born 1932), eminent UK mouse geneticist, X-inactivation and sex determination in mice
- Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (born 1922), distinguished Italian population geneticist at Stanford University
- Thomas Cech (born 1947), US biochemist who won Nobel Prize for catalytic functions of RNA
- Aravinda Chakravarti (born 1954), Indian-born bioinformatician studying genetic factors in common diseases
- Jean-Pierre Changeux (born 1936), French molecular neurobiologist, studied allosteric proteins
- Erwin Chargaff (1905–2002), Austrian-born US biochemist, Chargaff's rules led to the double helix
- Brian Charlesworth (born 1945), British evolutionary biologist, husband of Deborah Charlesworth
- Deborah Charlesworth, British evolutionary biologist, wife of Brian Charlesworth
- Martha Chase (1927–2003), US biologist, with Hersey proved genetic material is DNA, not protein
- Sergei Chetverikov (1880–1959), Russian population geneticist
- Barton Childs (born 1916), US pediatrician, biochemical geneticist, philosopher of medical genetics
- George Church (born 1954), US molecular geneticist, did first direct genomic sequencing with Gilbert
- Aaron Ciechanover (born 1947), Israeli biologist, won Nobel Prize for ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation
- Bryan Clarke (born 1932), British population geneticist, studied apostatic selection and molecular evolution
- Cyril Clarke (1907–2000), British medical geneticist, discovered how to prevent Rh disease in newborns
- Jens Clausen (1891–1969), Danish-US botanist, geneticist, and ecologist
- Edward H. Coe, Jr. (born 1926), influential US maize (corn) geneticist
- Stanley Cohen (born 1922), US neurobiologist, Nobel Prize for cell growth factors
- Francis Collins (born 1950), US medical geneticist, gene cloner, director of Human Genome Institute
- James J. Collins (born 1965), US bioengineer, pioneered synthetic biology and systems biology
- Robert Corey (1897–1971), US biochemist, α-helix, β-sheet and atomic models for proteins
- Carl Correns (1864–1933), German botanist and geneticist, one of the re-discoverers of Mendel in 1900
- Lewis L. Coriell (1911–2001), US pioneer in culturing human cells
- Diane W. Cox, Canadian medical geneticist and expert on Wilson disease
- Harriet Creighton (1909–2004), US botanist who with McClintock first saw chromosomal crossover
- Francis Crick (1916–2004), English molecular biologist, neuroscientist, co-discoverer of the double helix
- James F. Crow (born 1916), US population geneticist and renowned teacher of genetics
- Lucien Cuenot (1886–1901), French biologist, proved Mendel's rules apply to animals as well as plants
- A. Jamie Cuticchia (born 1966), US geneticist, into human genome informatics
D
- David M. Danks (1931–2003), Australian pediatrician and medical geneticist, expert on Menkes disease
- C. D. Darlington (1903–1981), British biologist and geneticist, elucidated chromosomal crossover
- Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and author of Origin of the Species
- Kay Davies, English geneticist, expert on muscular dystrophy
- Jean Dausset (born 1916) French immunogeneticist and Nobel Prize-winner for the HLA system
- Martin Dawson (1896–1945), Canadian-US researcher, confirmed and named genetic transformation
- Margaret Dayhoff (1925–1983), US pioneer in bioinformatics of protein sequences and evolution
- Albert de la Chapelle (born 1933), eminent Finnish medical geneticist, genetic predisposition to cancer
- Max Delbruck (1906–1981), German-US scientist, Nobel Prize for genetic structure of viruses
- Charles DeLisi, US biophysicist, led the initiative that planned and launched the Human Genome Project
- Félix d'Herelle (1873–1949), Canadian-French microbiologist, discovered phages, invented phage therapy
- Hugo de Vries (1848–1935), Dutch botanist and one of the re-discoverers of Mendel's laws in 1900
- M. Demerec (1895–1966), Croatian-US geneticist, directed Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900–1975), noted Ukrainian-US geneticist and evolutionary biologist
- John Doebley, US geneticist, studies genes that drive development and evolution of plants
- Peter Doherty (born 1940), Australian, won Nobel Prize for immune recognition of antigens
- Albert Dorfman (1916–1982), US biochemical geneticist, discovered cause of Hurler's syndrome
- Gabriel Dover, British evolutionary geneticist
- NT Dubinin (1907–1998), Russian biologist and geneticist
- Bernard Dutrillaux (born 1940), French cytogeneticist, chromosome banding, comparative cytogenetics
- Christian de Duve (born 1917), Belgian cytologist, Nobel Prize for cell organelles (peroxisomes, lysosomes)
E
- A.W.F. Edwards (born 1935), British statistician, geneticist, developed methods of phylogenetic analysis
- John Edwards (born 1928), British medical geneticist and cytogeneticist who first described trisomy 18
- Hans Eiberg (born 1945), Danish geneticist, discovered the mutation causing blue eyes
- Eugene "Gene" J. Eisen (born 1938), American geneticist, experimental validation of the theory of genetic correlations; first to conduct a long-term selection experiment with transgenic mice
- R. A. Emerson (1873–1947), American plant geneticist, the main pioneer of corn genetics
- Sterling Emerson (1900–1988), American, biochemical genetics, recombination, son of R. A. Emerson
- Alan Emery (born 1928), British neuromuscular geneticist, Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy
- Boris Ephrussi (1901–1979), Russian-born French geneticist, created way to transplant chromosomes
- Robert C. Elston (born 1932), British-born American biostatistical genetics and genetic epidemiologist
- Charlie Epstein, American medical geneticist, editor, developed mouse model for Down syndrome, wounded by the Unabomber
- Herbert McLean Evans (1882–1971), US anatomist, reported in 1918 humans had 48 chromosomes
- Martin Evans, British scientist, discovered embryonic stem cells and developed knockout mouse
- Warren Ewens, Australian-US mathematical population geneticist, Ewens's sampling formula
F
- Alexander Cyril Fabergé (1912–1988), Russian-born Anglo-American geneticist, grandson of Carl Fabergé
- Arturo Falaschi (1933–2010), Italian geneticist, researched the origin of DNA replication
- D. S. Falconer (1913–2004), Scottish quantitative geneticist, wrote textbook to the subject
- Stanley Falkow, US microbial geneticist, molecular mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis
- Harold Falls (1909–2006), US ophthalmologic geneticist, helped found first genetics clinic in US
- William C. Farabee (1865–1925), US anthropologist, brachydactyly is evidence of Mendelism in humans
- Nina Fedoroff (born c. 1945), US plant geneticist, cloning of transposable elements, plant stress response
- Malcolm Ferguson-Smith (born 1931) UK cytogeneticist, Klinefelter's syndrome, chromosome flow cytometry
- Philip J. Fialkow (1934–1996), US internist, educator, research in medical genetics and cancer genetics
- Giorgio Filippi (1935–1996), Italian medical geneticist, researched diseases linked to X chromosome
- J.R.S. Fincham (1926–2005), British microbial (Neurospora) and biochemical geneticist
- Gerald Fink (born 1941), US molecular geneticist, preeminent figure in the field of yeast genetics
- Andrew Fire (born 1959), US geneticist, Nobel Prize with Mello for discovery of RNA interference
- Robert L. Fischer (born 1950), A US geneticist, contributed to the understanding of genomic imprinting and epigenetics
- R.A. Fisher (1890–1962), British stellar statistician, evolutionary biologist, and geneticist
- Ed Fischer (born 1920), Swiss-US biochemist, Nobel Prize for phosphorylation as switch activating proteins
- Eugen Fischer (1874–1967), German physician, anthropologist, eugenicist, influenced Nazi racial hygiene
- Asbjorn Folling (1888–1973), Norwegian biochemist and physician who discovered phenylketonuria (PKU)
- E.B. Ford (1901–1988), British ecological geneticist, specializing in butterflies and moths
- Charles Ford (1912–1999), British pioneer in the golden age of mammalian cytogenetics
- Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat (1910–1999), German-born US biochemist who studied tobacco mosaic virus
- Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958), British crystallographer whose data led to discovery of double helix
- Clarke Fraser (born 1920), Canada's first medical geneticist, student of congenital malformations
- Elaine Fuchs (born c. 1951), US cell biologist, molecular mechanisms of skin diseases, reverse genetics
- Walter Fuhrmann (1924–1995), German medical geneticist, at Giessen University
- Douglas J. Futuyma (born 1942), US evolutionary and ecological biologist
G
- Fred Gage, US neuroscientist, studies of neurogenesis and neuroplasticity of the adult brain
- Joseph G. Gall (born 1932), distinguished US cell biologist, chromosomes, created in situ hybridization
- André Gallais, French specialist in quantitative genetics and breeding methods theory
- Francis Galton (1822–1911), British geneticist, eugenicist, statistician
- George Gamow (1904–1968), Ukrainian-born American polymath, proposed genetic code concept
- Eldon J. Gardner (1909–1989), US professor of genetics in Utah, described Gardner's syndrome
- Alan Garen (born c. 1924), US, early molecular geneticist, nonsense triplets terminating transcription
- Archibald Garrod (1857–1936), English physician, pioneered inborn errors, founded biochemical genetics
- Stan Gartler (born 1923), US human geneticist, G6PD as X-linked marker, clonality of cancer, HeLa cells contaminating cell lines
- Luigi Gedda (1902–2000), Italian geneticist best known for his fascination with twin studies
- Walter Gehring (born 1939), Swiss, developmental genetics of Drosophila, discovered homeobox
- Park S. Gerald (1921–1993), US medical geneticist, research on hemoglobins and chromosomes
- James L. German, US medical geneticist & cytogeneticist, pioneer on Bloom syndrome
- Walter Gilbert (born 1932), US biochemist and molecular biologist, Nobel Prize-winner, entrepreneur
- H. Bentley Glass (1906–2005) US geneticist, provocative science theorizer, writer, science policy maker
- Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch (born 1907), German-born US co-founder of developmental genetics
- Richard Goldschmidt (1878–1958),German-American, integrated genetics, development, & evolution
- Joseph L. Goldstein (born 1940), US medical geneticist, Nobel Prize-winner on cholesterol
- Richard M. Goodman (1932–1989), US-Israeli clinical geneticist, pioneered Jewish genetic diseases
- Robert J. Gorlin (1923–2006) US oral pathologist, clinical geneticist, craniofacial syndrome expert
- Carol W. Greider (born 1961), US molecular biologist, Lasker Award for telomeres and telomerase
- Frederick Griffith (1879–1941), British medical officer who found transforming principle now called DNA
- Clifford Grobstein (1916–1998), US scientist, bridged classical embryology and developmental biology
- Jean de Grouchy (1926–2003), French pioneer of clinical cytogenetics & karyotype-phenotype correlation
- Hans Gruneberg (1907–1982), British mouse geneticist and blood cell biologist
- Pierre-Henri Gouyon (1953 - ), French biologist specializing in genetics and bioethics
- Elliot S. Goldstein American geneticist at Arizona State University
H
- Ernst Hadorn (1902–1976), Swiss pioneer in developmental genetics, mentor of Walter Gehring
- JBS Haldane (1892–1964), brilliant British human geneticist and co-founder of population genetics
- Ben Hall, US geneticist, DNA:RNA hybridization, yeast production of genetically engineered proteins
- Judy Hall (born 1939), dual American and Canadian charismatic clinical geneticist and dysmorphologist
- Dean Hamer (born 1951) US geneticist, postulated gay gene and God gene for religious experience
- John Hamerton (1929–2006), Anglo-Canadian cytogeneticist, prenatal diagnostician, bioethicist
- W.D. Hamilton (1936–2000), British evolutionary biologist and eminent evolutionary theorist
- Phil Hanawalt, US geneticist, discovered DNA repair replication
- Anita Harding (1952–1995), UK neurologist, first mitochondrial DNA mutation in disease
- GH Hardy (1877–1947), British mathematician, formulated basic law of population genetics
- Henry Harpending (born 1944), US anthropologist and human population geneticist
- Harry Harris (1919–94), British biochemical geneticist par excellence
- Henry Harris (born 1925), Australian-born cell biologist, work on cancer and human genetics
- Lee Hartwell (born 1939), US yeast geneticist, Nobel Prize, "start" gene and checkpoints in the cell cycle
- Mogens Hauge (1922–1988), Danish medical geneticist and twin researcher
- Donald Hawthorne (1926–2003), US, major contributor to yeast genetics, centromere-linked gene maps
- William Hayes (1918–1994), Australian physician, microbiologist & geneticist, bacterial conjugation
- Robert Haynes (1931–1998), Canadian geneticist and biophysicist, work on DNA repair and mutagenesis
- Frederick Hecht (born 1930), US clinical geneticist, cytogeneticist, coined term fragile site
- Michael Heidelberger (1888–1991) US pioneer of modern immunology, won two Lasker Awards
- Martin Heisenberg (born 1940), German geneticist, neurobiologist, genetic study of brain of Drosophila
- Charles Roy Henderson, (1911–1989), US animal geneticist, basis for genetic evaluation of livestock, developed statistical methods used in animal breeding
- Al Hershey (1908–1997), US bacterial geneticist, Nobel Prize largely for Hershey-Chase experiment
- Ira Herskowitz (1946–2003), US phage & yeast geneticist, genetic regulatory circuits & mechanisms
- Len Herzenberg (born 1931), US human geneticist, immunologist, cell biologist and cell sorter
- Avram Hershko (born 1937), Israeli biologist, Nobel Prize for ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation
- Kurt Hirschhorn (born 1926), Viennese-born American pediatrician, medical geneticist, cytogeneticist; described Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome
- Mahlon Hoagland (born 1921), US physician and biochemist, co-discovered tRNA with Paul Zamecnik
- Dorothy Hodgkin (1910–1994), British founder of protein crystallography and Nobel Prize winner
- Robert W. Holley (1922–1993), US biochemist, structure of transfer RNA, Nobel Prize
- Leroy Hood (born 1938), US molecular biotechnologist, created DNA & protein sequencers & synthesizers
- Norman Horowitz (1915–2005), US geneticist, one gene-one enzyme, chemical evolution, space biology
- H. Robert Horvitz (born 1947), US cell biologist, Nobel Prize for programmed cell death
- David E. Housman, US molecular biologist, genetic basis of trinucleotide repeat diseases and cancer
- Martha M. Howe, US phage geneticist, notable contributions to the study of phage Mu
- T.C. Hsu (1917–2003), distinguished Chinese-American cell biologist, geneticist, cytogeneticist
- Thomas J. Hudson (born 1961), Canadian genome scientist, maps of human and mouse genomes
- David Hungerford (1927–1993), US co-discoverer of Philadelphia chromosome in CML
- Tim Hunt (born 1943), UK biochemist, Nobel Prize for discovery of cyclins in cell cycle control
- Charles Leonard Huskins (1897–1953), English-born Canadian cytogeneticist at McGill University and University of Wisconsin–Madison
I
J
- François Jacob (born 1920), French biologist, won Nobel Prize for bacterial gene control
- Patricia A. Jacobs (born 1934), Scottish human geneticist and cytogeneticist
- Albert Jacquard (born 1925), French geneticist, essayist, humanist, activist
- Rudolf Jaenisch (born 1942), German cell biologist, created transgenic mice, leader in therapeutic cloning
- Richard Jefferson (born 1956) US molecular plant biologist in Australia, reporter gene system GUS
- Alec Jeffreys (born 1950), British geneticist, developed DNA fingerprinting and DNA profiling techniques
- Niels K. Jerne (1911–1994), Danish, greatest theoretician in modern immunology, Nobel Prize
- Wilhelm Johannsen (1857–1927), Danish botanist who in 1909 coined the word "gene"
- Jonathan D.G. Jones, British plant molecular biologist
- Steve Jones (born 1944), British evolutionary geneticist and malacologist
- Christian Jung (born 1956), German plant geneticist and molecular biologist
K
- Dronamraju Krishna Rao (born 1937), Indian born Geneticis, founder of Foundation of Genetic Research
- Elvin Kabat (1914–2000) US immunochemist, a founder of modern immunology, antibody-combining sites
- Henrik Kacser (1918–1995), Romanian-born UK biochemist and geneticist, worked on metabolic control
- Axel Kahn (born 1944), French scientist and geneticist, known for work on genetically modified plants
- Franz Josef Kallmann (1897–1965), German-US psychiatrist, pioneer in genetics of psychiatric diseases
- Gopinath Kartha (1927–1984), Indian biophysicist, co-discovered triple-helix structure of collagen
- Berwind P. Kaufmann (1897–1975), US botanist, did research in basic plant and animal cytogenetics
- John Kendrew (1917–1997), UK crystallographer, won Nobel Prize for structure of myoglobin
- Cynthia Kenyon (born c. 1955), US molecular biologist, genetics of aging in the worm C. elegans
- Warwick Estevam Kerr (born 1922) Brazilian expert in the genetics and sex determination of bees
- Bernard Kettlewell (1907–1979), UK physician, lepidopterist, ecological geneticist, peppered moth
- Seymour Kety (1915–2000), US neuroscientist, essential involvement of genetic factors in schizophrenia
- Gobind Khorana (1922–2011), Indian-US molecular biologist, synthesized nucleic acids, Nobel Prize
- Motoo Kimura (1924–1994), influential Japanese mathematical biologist in theoretical population genetics
- Mary-Claire King (born 1946), US human geneticist and social activist, identified breast cancer genes
- David Klein, (1908–1993), Swiss ophthalmologist and human geneticist
- Harold Klinger (1929–2004), US pioneer on human chromosomes, founded journal Cytogenetics
- Aaron Klug (born 1926), Lithuania/S Africa/UK, Nobel Prize for developing electron crystallography
- Al Knudson (born 1922), US pediatric oncologist, geneticist, formulated two hit hypothesis of cancer
- Georges J. F. Köhler (1946–1995), German, Nobel Prize for hybridomas making monoclonal antibodies
- Arthur Kornberg (born 1918), US biochemist, Nobel Prize on DNA synthesis, father of Roger Kornberg
- Roger Kornberg (born 1947), US biologist, Nobel Prize on eukaryotic transcription
- Hans Kornberg (born 1928), German-UK biologist, studies of carbohydrate transport
- Ed Krebs (1918–2009), US biochemist, Nobel Prize for phosphorylation as switch activating proteins
- Eric Kremer, US molecular biologist, found trinucleotide repeat in fragile X, research now in gene therapy
- Henry Kunkel (1916–1983), US immunologist, created starch gel electrophoresis to separate proteins
L
- Bruce Lahn (born 1969), Chinese-born geneticist specializing in evolutionary changes of the human brain
- Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829), French naturalist, evolutionist, "inheritance of acquired traits"
- Eric Lander (born 1957), American molecular geneticist, major contributor to Human Genome Project
- Karl Landsteiner (1868–1943), Austrian-American pathologist, won Nobel Prize for blood group discoveries
- André Langaney, French evolutionary geneticist
- Derald Langham (1913–1991), American agricultural geneticist, the "father of sesame"
- Sam Latt (1938–1988), US pioneer in molecular cytogenetics, fluorescent DNA chromosome probes
- Philip Leder (born 1934), US geneticist, method to decode genetic code, transgenic animals to study cancer
- Esther Lederberg (1922–2006), US microbiologist and bacterial genetics pioneer
- Joshua Lederberg (born 1925), US molecular biologist, Nobel Prize, headed Rockefeller University
- Jerome Lejeune (1926–1994), French pediatrician, geneticist, discovered trisomy 21 in Down syndrome
- Richard Lenski (born 1956), US biologist and phage worker, did long-term E. coli evolution experiment
- Fritz Lenz (1887–1976), German geneticist and eugenicist, ideas influenced Nazi racial hygiene policies
- Widukind Lenz (1919–1995), eminent German medical geneticist who recognized thalidomide syndrome
- Leonard Lerman, US molecular biologist, phage worker, mentor of Nobel Prize-winner Sidney Altman
- Michael Lerner (1910–1977), Russian-US contributor to population, quantitative & evolutionary genetics
- Albert Levan (1905–1998), Swedist geneticist, co-authored report that humans have 46 chromosomes
- Cyrus Levinthal (1922–1990), US molecular geneticist, DNA replication, mRNA, molecular graphics
- Edward B. Lewis (1918–2004), American founder of developmental genetics and Nobel Prize-winner
- Richard Lewontin (born 1929), American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and social commentator
- C. C. Li (1912–2003), eminent Chinese American population geneticist and human geneticist
- Wen-Hsiung Li (born 1942), Taiwanese-American, molecular evolution, population genetics, genomics
- David Linder (1923–1999), US pathologist and geneticist, used G6PD as X-linked clonal tumor marker
- Susan Lindquist, US molecular biologist studying effects of protein folding and heat-shock proteins
- Jan Lindsten (born 1935), eminent Swedish medical geneticist, secretary general of the Nobel Assembly
- Fritz Lipmann (1899–1986), German-American biochemist, Nobel Prize for co-discovery of coenzyme A
- C. C. Little (1888–1971), US pioneer mouse geneticist, founded Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine
- Richard Losick, US molecular biologist, RNA polymerase, gene transcription, bacterial development
- Herbert Lubs (born c. 1928), US internist, medical geneticist, described "marker X" (fragile X chromosome)
- Salvador Luria (1912–1991), Italian-American molecular biologist, Nobel Prize for bacteriophage genetics
- Jay Lush (1896–1982), American animal geneticist who pioneered modern scientific animal breeding
- Michael Lynch, US quantitative geneticist studying evolution, population genetics, and genomics
- Mary F. Lyon (born 1925), English mouse geneticist, noted X-inactivation and proposed Lyon hypothesis
- David T. Lykken (1928–2006), American psychologist and behavioral geneticist known for twin studies
- Trofim Lysenko (1898–1976), Soviet scientist, led vicious political campaign against genetics in USSR
M
- Ellen Magenis (born 1925), US medical geneticist and cytogeneticist, Smith-Magenis syndrome
- Phyllis McAlpine (1941–1998), Canadian human geneticist and gene mapper
- Maclyn McCarty (1911–2005), American co-discoverer that DNA is the genetic material
- Barbara McClintock (1902–1992), American cytogeneticist, Nobel Prize for genetic transposition
- W. McGinnis, US molecular geneticist, found homeobox (Hox) genes responsible for basic body plan
- Victor A. McKusick (born 1921), US internist and clinical geneticist, organized human genetic knowledge
- Colin MacLeod (1909–1972), Canadian-American co-discoverer that DNA is the genetic material
- Tak Wah Mak (born 1946), Chinese-Canadian molecular biologist, co-discovered human T cell receptor genes
- Gustave Malécot (1911–1998), French mathematician who influenced population genetics
- Tom Maniatis (born 1943), US molecular biologist, gene cloning, regulation of gene expression
- Clement Markert (1917–1999), eminent US biologist, discovered isozymes
- Joan Marks, American social worker, principal architect of the profession of genetic counselor
- Richard E. Marshall (1933 - ), American paediatrician, Greig's syndrome I, Marshall-Smith syndrome
- John Maynard Smith (1920–2004), British evolutionary biologist and population geneticist
- Ernst Mayr (1904–2005), leading German-born American evolutionary biologist
- Peter Medawar (1915–1987), Brazilian-born English scientist, Nobel Prize for immunological tolerance
- Craig C. Mello (born 1960), American geneticist, Nobel Prize for discovery of RNA interference
- Gregor Mendel (1822–1884), Bohemian monk who discovered laws of Mendelian inheritance
- Carole Meredith, American geneticist who pioneered DNA typing to differentiate between grape varieties
- Matthew Meselson (born 1930), US molecular geneticist, work on DNA replication, recombination, repair
- Peter Michaelis, German plant geneticist, focused on cytoplasmic inheritance
- Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin (1855–1935), Russian plant geneticist, scientific agricultural selection
- Friedrich Mieschler (1844–1895), Swiss biologist, found weak acid in white blood cells now called DNA
- Margareta Mikkelsen (1923–2004), eminent German-born Danish human geneticist and cytogeneticist
- Lois K. Miller (d. 2006, age 54), entomologist and molecular geneticist, studied insect viruses
- O.J. Miller, US physician, human and mammalian genetics and chromosome structure and function
- César Milstein (1927–2002) Argentine-UK, Nobel Prize for hybridomas making monoclonal antibodies
- Aubrey Milunsky (born c. 1936), S. African-US physician, medical geneticist, writer, prenatal diagnosis
- Alfred Mirsky (1900—1974), US pioneer in molecular biology, hemoglobin structure, constancy of DNA
- Felix Mitelman (born 1940), Swedish cancer geneticist and cytogeneticist, catalog of chromosomes in cancer
- Jan Mohr (1921–2009), eminent Norwegian-Danish pioneer in human gene mapping
- Jacques Monod (1910–1976), French molecular biologist, Nobel Prize-winner
- Lilian Vaughn Morgan (1870–1952), wife of T.H. Morgan and a fine geneticist in her own right
- T.H. Morgan (1866–1945), head of the "fly room," first geneticist to win the Nobel Prize
- Newton E. Morton (born 1929), population geneticist and genetic epidemiologist
- Arno G. Motulsky, German-US hematologist who influenced the evolution of medical genetics
- Arthur Mourant (1904–1994), British hematologist, first to examine worldwide blood group distributions
- H.J. Muller (1890–1967) American Drosophila geneticist, Nobel Prize for producing mutations by X-rays
- Hans J. Müller-Eberhard (1927–1998), German-US immunogeneticist, immunoglobulins & complement
- Kary Mullis (born 1944), American biochemist, Nobel Prize for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
N
- Walter E. Nance (born 1933), US internist and geneticist, research on twins and genetics of deafness
- Daniel Nathans (1928–1999), US microbiologist, Nobel Prize for restriction endonucleases
- James V. Neel (1915–2000), distinguished human geneticist, founded first genetics clinic in the US
- Fred Neidhardt, US microbiologist, pioneer in molecular physiology and proteomics of E. coli
- Oliver Nelson (born 1920), US maize geneticist, profound impact on agriculture and basic genetics
- Walter Nelson-Rees, US cytogeneticist, confirmed HeLa cells contamination of other cell lines
- Eugene W. Nester, US microbial geneticist, genetics of Agrobacterium (crown gall formation)
- Carl Neuberg, early pioneer of the study of metabolism.
- Hans Neurath (1909–2002), Austrian-US protein chemist, helped set stage for proteomics
- Marshall W. Nirenberg (born 1927), US geneticist, biochemist and Nobel Prize-winner
- Eva Nogales, Spanish biophysicist studying eukaryotic transcription and translation initiation complexes
- Edward Novitski (1918–2006), eminent US Drosophila geneticist, pioneer in chromosome mechanics
- Paul Nurse (born 1949), UK biochemist, Nobel Prize for work on CDK, a key regulator of the cell cycle
- Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (born 1942), German developmental biologist and Nobel Prize-winner
- William Nyhan (born 1926), US pediatrician and biochemical geneticist, described Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
O
- Severo Ochoa (1905–1993), Spanish-American biochemist, Nobel Prize for work on the synthesis of RNA
- Susumu Ohno (1928–2000), Japanese-US biologist, evolutionary cytogenetics and molecular evolution
- Tomoko Ohta, Japanese scientist in molecular evolution, the nearly neutral theory of evolution
- Pete Oliver (1898–1991), American geneticist, switched from Drosophila to human genetics
- Jane M. Olson (1952–2004), American genetic epidemiologist and biostatistician
- Maynard Olson, American geneticist, pioneered map of yeast genome and Human Genome Project
- John Opitz (born 1935), German-American medical geneticist, expert on dysmorphology and syndromes
- Harry Ostrer, American medical geneticist, studies origins of Jewish peoples
- Ray Owen (born 1915), US geneticist, immunologist, found cattle blood groups and chimeric twin calves
P
- Svante Pääbo (born 1955), Swedish molecular anthropologist in Leipzig studying Neanderthal genome
- David Page, US physician and geneticist who mapped, cloned and sequenced the human Y chromosome
- Theophilus Painter (1889–1969), US zoologist, studied fruit fly and human testis chromosomes
- Arthur Pardee (born 1921), American scientist who discovered restriction point in the cell cycle
- Klaus Patau (1908–1975), German-American cytogeneticist, described trisomy 13
- Andrew H. Paterson, US geneticist, research leader in plant genomics
- Linus Pauling (1901–1994), eminent American chemist, won Nobel Prizes for chemical bonds and peace
- Crodowaldo Pavan (born 1919), Brazilian biologist, fly geneticist, and influential scientist in Brazil
- Rose Payne (1909–1999), US transplant geneticist, key to discovery and development of HLA system
- Raymond Pearl (1879–1940), American biologist, biostatistician, rejected eugenics
- Karl Pearson (1857–1936), British statistician, made key contributions to genetic analysis
- LS Penrose (1898–1972), British psychiatrist, human geneticist, pioneered genetics of mental retardation
- Max Perutz (1914–2002), Austrian-British molecular biologist, Nobel Prize for structure of hemoglobin
- Massimo Pigliucci (born 1964), Italian-US plant ecological and evolutionary geneticist. Winner of the Dobzhansky Prize.
- Alfred Ploetz (1860–1940), German physician, biologist, eugenicist, introduced racial hygiene to Germany
- Paul Polani (1914–2006), Triese-born UK pediatrician, major catalyst of medical genetics in Britain
- Charles Pomerat (1905–1951), American cell biologist, pioneered the field of tissue culture
- Guido Pontecorvo (1907–1999), Italian-born Scottish geneticist and pioneer molecular biologist
- George R. Price (1922–1975), brilliant but troubled US population geneticist and theoretical biologist
- Peter Propping (born 1942), German human geneticist, studies of epilepsy
- Mark Ptashne (born c. 1940), US molecular biologist, studies of genetic switch, phage lambda
- Ted Puck (1916–2005), US physicist, work in mammalian & human cell culture, genetics, cytogenetics
- RC Punnett (1875–1967), early English geneticist, discovered linkage with William Bateson, stimulated GH Hardy
Q
- Lluis Quintana-Murci (born 1970), Spanish human population geneticist, heads part of Genographic Project
R
- Robert Race (1907–1984), British expert on blood groups, along with wife Ruth Sanger
- Sheldon C. Reed (1910–2003), American pioneer in genetic counseling and behavioral genetics
- G.N. Ramachandran (1922–2001) Indian biophysicist, co-discovered triple-helix structure of collagen
- David Reich, US, human population genetics and genomics, did humans and chimps interbreed?
- Theodore Reich (1938–2003), Canadian-American psychiatrist, a founder of modern psychiatric genetics
- Alexander Rich (born 1925), US biologist, biophysicist, discovered Z-DNA and tRNA 3-dimensional structure
- Rollin C. Richmond, US, evolutionary and pharmacogenetic studies of Drosophila, university administrator
- Neil Risch, American human and population geneticist, studied torsion dystonia
- Otto Renner (1883–1960), German plant geneticist, established maternal plastid inheritance
- Marcus Rhoades (1903–1991), great maize (corn) geneticist and cytogeneticist
- David L. Rimoin (born 1936), Canadian-US pediatric geneticist, focus on particularly skeletal dysplasias
- Richard Roberts (born 1943), British molecular biologist, Nobel Prize for introns and gene-splicing
- Arthur Robinson (1914–2000), American pediatrician, geneticist, pioneer on sex chromosome anomalies
- Herschel L. Roman (1914–1989), American geneticist, innovated in analysis in maize and budding yeast
- Irwin Rose (born 1926), American biologist, Nobel Prize for ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation
- Leon Rosenberg (born c. 1932), US physician-geneticist, molecular basis of inherited metabolic disease
- Peyton Rous (1879–1970), American tumor virologist and tissue culture expert, Nobel Prize
- Janet Rowley (born 1925), American cancer cytogeneticist who found Ph chromosome due to translocation
- Peter T. Rowley (1929–2006), American internist and geneticist, genetics of cancer and leukemia
- Frank Ruddle, US biologist, somatic cell genetics, human gene mapping, paved way for transgenic mice
- Ernst Rüdin (1874–1952), Swiss psychiatrist, geneticist and eugenicist who promoted racial hygiene
- Elizabeth S. Russell (1913–2001), US mammalian geneticist, pioneering work on pigmentation, blood-forming cells, and germ cells
- Liane B. Russell (born c. 1923), Austrian-born US mouse geneticist and radiation biologist
- William L. Russell (1910–2003), UK-US mouse geneticist, pioneered study of mutagenesis in mice
S
- Leo Sachs (born 1924), German-Israeli molecular cancer biologist, colony-stimulating factors, interleukins
- Ruth Sager (1918–1997), US geneticist, pioneer of cytoplasmic genetics, tumor suppressor genes
- Joseph Sambrook (born 1939), British viral geneticist
- Avery A. Sandberg, US internist, discovered XYY in 1961, expert on chromosomes in cancer
- Lodewijk A. Sandkuijl (1953–2002), Dutch expert on genetic epidemiology and statistical genetics
- Larry Sandler (1929–1987), US Drosophila geneticist, chromosome mechanics, devoted teacher
- John C. Sanford (born 1950), American horticultural geneticist and intelligent design advocate
- Fred Sanger (born 1918), UK biochemist, two Nobel Prizes, sequence of insulin, DNA sequencing method
- Ruth Sanger (1918–2001), Australian expert on blood groups, along with husband Robert Race
- Karl Sax (1892–1973), American botanist and cytogeneticist, effects of radiation on chromosomes
- Paul Schedl (born 1947), US molecular biologist, genetic regulation of developmental pathways in fruit fly
- Albert Schinzel (born 1944), Austrian human geneticist, clinical genetics, karyotype-phenotype correlations
- Werner Schmid (1930–2002), Swiss pioneer in human cytogenetics, described cat-eye syndrome
- Gertrud Schüpbach, Swiss-American biologist, molecular and genetic mechanisms in oogenesis
- Charles Scriver (born 1930), Canadian pediatrician, biochemical geneticist, newborn metabolic screening
- Ernie Sears, (1910–1991), Wheat Geneticist who pioneered methods of transferring desirable genes from wild relatives to cultivated wheat in order to increase wheat's resistance to various insects and diseases
- Jay Seegmiller (1920–2006), US human biochemical geneticist, found cause of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
- Fred Sherman (born c. 1933), US geneticist, one of the "fathers" and mentors of modern yeast genetics
- Larry Shapiro, US pediatric geneticist, lysosomal storage disorders, X chromosome inactivation
- Lucy Shapiro, US molecular geneticist, gene expression during the cell cycle, bacterium Caulobacter
- Phillip Sharp (born 1944), US geneticist and molecular biologist, Nobel Prize for co-discovery of gene splicing
- Philip Sheppard (1921–1976), British population geneticist, lepidopterist, human blood group researcher
- G. H. Shull (1874–1954), American geneticist, made key discoveries including heterosis
- Obaid Siddiqui (born 1932), Indian neurogeneticist, pioneer on olfactory sense of fruit fly Drosophila
- David Sillence (born 1944), Australian clinical geneticist, pioneered training of Australian geneticists, research in bone dysplasias, classified Osteogenesis Imperfecta
- Norman Simmons (1915–2004), US, forgotten donor of pure DNA to Rosalind Franklin in double helix saga
- Piotr Slonimski (born 1922), Polish-Parisian yeast geneticist, pioneer of mitochondrial heredity
- William S. Sly (born c. 1931), US biochemical geneticist, mucopolysaccharidosis type VII (Sly syndrome)
- Cedric A. B. Smith (1917–2002), British statistician, made key contributions to statistical genetics
- David W. Smith (1926–1981), US pediatrician, influential dysmorphologist, named fetal alcohol syndrome
- Hamilton Smith (born 1931), American microbiologist, Nobel Prize for restriction endonucleases
- Michael Smith (1932–2000), UK-born Canadian biochemist, Nobel Prize for site-directed mutagenesis
- Oliver Smithies (born 1925), UK/US molecular geneticist, inventor, gel electrophoresis, knock-out mice
- George Snell (1903–1996), US mouse geneticist, pioneer transplant immunologist, won Nobel Prize
- Lawrence H. Snyder (1901–1986), American pioneer in medical genetics, studied blood groups
- Robert R. Sokal (born 1925), Austrian-born US biological anthropologist and biostatistician.
- Tracy M. Sonneborn (1905–1981), protozoan biologist and geneticist
- Ed Southern (born 1938), UK molecular biologist, invented Southern blot and DNA microarray technologies
- Hans Spemann (1869–1941) German embryologist, Nobel Prize for discovery of embryonic induction
- David Stadler, American geneticist, mechanisms of mutation and recombination in Neurospora
- L.J. Stadler (1896–1954), eminent American maize geneticist, father of David Stadler
- Frank Stahl (born 1929), American molecular biologist, the Stahl half of the Meselson-Stahl experiment
- David States, US geneticist & bioinformatician, computational study of human genome & proteome
- G. Ledyard Stebbins (1906–2000), American botanist, geneticist and evolutionary biologist
- Michael Stebbins, American geneticist, science writer, editor and activist
- Emmy Stein (1879–1954), German botanist and geneticist
- Joan A. Steitz (born c. 1942), US molecular biologist, pioneering studies of snRNAs and snRNPs (snurps)
- Gunther Stent (born 1924), German-born US molecular geneticist, phage worker, philosopher of science
- Curt Stern (1902–1981), German-born US Drosophila and human geneticist, great teacher
- Nettie Stevens (1861–1912), US geneticist, studied chromosomal basis of sex and discovered XY basis
- Miodrag Stojkovic (born 1964), Serbian geneticist, working in Europe on mammalian cloning
- George Streisinger (1927–1984), American geneticist, work on bacterial viruses, frameshift mutations
- List item Leonell Strong (1894–1982) American geneticist, mouse geneticist and cancer researcher
- Alfred Sturtevant (1891–1970), constructed first genetic map of a chromosome
- John Sulston (born 1942), British molecular biologist, Nobel Prize for programmed cell death in C. elegans
- James Sumner (1887–1955), American biochemist, Nobel Prize, found enzymes can be crystallized
- Maurice Super (d. 2006, age 69), S. African-born UK pediatric geneticist, studied cystic fibrosis
- Grant Sutherland, Australian molecular cytogeneticist, pioneer on human fragile sites, human genome
- Walter Sutton (1877–1916), US surgeon and scientist, proved chromosomes contained genes
- David Suzuki (born 1936), Canadian Drosophila geneticist, science broadcaster and environmental activist
- M.S. Swaminathan (born 1925), Indian agricultural scientist, geneticist, leader of Green Revolution in India
- Bryan Sykes, British human geneticist, discovered ways to extract DNA from fossilized bones
- Jack Szostak (born 1952), Anglo-US geneticist, work on telomeres, recombination, artificial chromosomes
T
- Edward Tatum (1909–1975), showed genes control individual steps in metabolism
- Howard Temin (1934–1994), US geneticist, Nobel Prize for discovery of reverse transcriptase
- Alan Templeton (born c. 1948), US geneticist & biostatistician, molecular evolution, evolutionary biology
- Donnall Thomas (born 1920) US physician, Nobel Prize for bone marrow transplantation for leukemia
- Nikolay Timofeeff-Ressovsky (1900–1981), Russian radiation and evolution geneticist
- Alfred Tissières (1917–2003), Swiss molecular geneticist, pioneered molecular biology in Geneva
- Joe Hin Tjio (1919–2001), Java-born geneticist who first discovered humans have 46 chromosomes
- Susumu Tonegawa (born 1939), Japanese molecular biologist, Nobel Prize for genetics of antibody diversity
- Erich von Tschermak (1871–1962) Austrian agronomist and one of the re-discoverers of Mendel's laws
- Lap-Chee Tsui, Chinese geneticist, sequenced first human gene (for cystic fibrosis) with Collins
- Raymond Turpin (1895–1988), French pediatrician, geneticist, Lejeune's co-discoverer of trisomy 21
U
V
- Harold Varmus (born 1939), American Nobel Prize-winner for oncogenes, head of NIH
- Rajeev Kumar Varshney (born 1973), Indian Geneticist, Principal Scientist at ICRISAT and Theme Leader at Generation Challenge Programme
- Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943), eminent Russian botanist and geneticist, anti-Lysenko, died in prison
- Craig Venter (born 1946), American molecular biologist and entrepreneur, raced to sequence the genome
- Jerome Vinograd (1913–1976), US, leader in biochemistry and molecular biology of nucleic acids
- Friedrich Vogel, German, leader in human genetics, coined term "pharmacogenetics"
- Bert Vogelstein (born 1949), US pediatrician and cancer geneticist, series of mutations in colorectal cancer
- Erik Adolf von Willebrand (1870–1949), Finnish internist who found commonest bleeding disorder
W
- Petrus Johannes Waardenburg (1886–1979), Dutch ophthalmologist, geneticist, Waardenburg syndrome
- C. H. Waddington (1905–1975), British developmental biologist, paleontologist, geneticist, embryologist
- Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913), Welsh, proposed natural selection theory independent of Darwin
- Douglas Wallace, US mitochondrial geneticist, pioneered human mtDNA as a molecular marker
- Peter Walter, German-US molecular biologist studying protein folding and protein targeting
- Richard H. Ward (1943–2003), English-born New Zealand human and anthropological geneticist
- James D. Watson (born 1928), US molecular geneticist, Nobel Prize for discovery of the double helix
- David Weatherall, distinguished UK physician, geneticist, pioneer in hemoglobin and molecular medicine
- Robert Weinberg, US, discovered first human oncogene and first tumor suppressor gene
- Wilhelm Weinberg (1862–1937),German physician, formulated basic law of population genetics
- Spencer Wells (born 1969), US genetic anthropologist, head of Genographic Project to map past migrations
- Susan R. Wessler (born 1953), US plant molecular geneticist, transposable elements re genetic diversity
- Raymond White, US cancer geneticist, cloned APC colon cancer gene & neurofibromatosis gene
- Glayde Whitney (1939–2002) US behavioral geneticist, accused of supporting scientific racism
- Reed Wickner (born c. 1940) US molecular geneticist, yeast phenotypes due to prion forms of native proteins
- Alexander S. Wiener (1907–1976), U.S. immunologist, discovered Rh blood groups with Landsteiner
- Eric F. Wieschaus (born 1947), American developmental biologist and Nobel Prize-winner
- Maurice Wilkins (1916–2004), New Zealand-born British Nobel Prize-winner with Watson and Crick
- Huntington Willard (born c. 1953), US human geneticist, X chromosome inactivation, gene silencing
- Robley Williams (1908–1995), US virologist, recreated tobacco mosaic virus from its RNA + protein coat
- Ian Wilmut (born 1944) UK reproductive biologist who first cloned a mammal (lamb named Dolly)
- Allan Wilson (1934–1991) New Zealand-US innovator in molecular study of human evolution
- David Sloan Wilson (born 1949), US evolutionary biologist and geneticist
- Edmund Beecher Wilson (1856–1939), US zoologist, geneticist, discovered XY & XX sex chromosomes
- Øjvind Winge (1886–1964), Danish biologist and pioneer in yeast genetics
- Chester B. Whitley (born 1950), US geneticist, pioneered treatment of lysosomal diseases
- Carl Woese (born 1928), US biologist, defined Archaea as new domain of life, rRNA phylogenetic tool
- Ulrich Wolf (born 1933), German cytogeneticist, found chromosome 4p deletion in Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome
- Melaku Worede (born 1936), Ethiopian conservationist and geneticist
- Sewall Wright (1889–1988), eminent US geneticist who, with Fisher, united genetics & evolution
Y
- Charles Yanofsky (born 1925), American molecular geneticist, colinearity of gene and its protein product
Z
See also