born Sept. 25, 1866, Lexington, Ky., U.S.
died Dec. 4, 1945, Pasadena, Calif.
U.S. zoologist and geneticist.
He received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. As a professor at Columbia University (1904–28) and California Institute of Technology (1928–45), he conducted important research on heredity . Like many of his contemporaries, Morgan found Charles Darwin 's theory of natural selection implausible because it could not be tested experimentally, and he objected to Mendelian and chromosome theories, arguing that no single chromosome could carry specific hereditary traits. His opinion changed as a result of his studies of Drosophila . He developed the hypothesis of sex-linked traits. He adopted the term gene and concluded that genes were possibly arranged in a linear fashion on chromosomes. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933. See also Calvin Blackman Bridges .