EAST, EDWARD MURRAY

born , Oct. 4, 1879, Du Quoin, Ill., U.S. died Nov. 9, 1938, Boston, Mass. American plant geneticist, botanist, agronomist, and chemist, whose experiments, along with those of others, led to the development of hybrid corn (maize). He was particularly interested in determining and controlling the protein and fat content of corn, both of which have significant influence upon that grain's value as animal feed. East, a precocious youth, finished high school at age 15 and then worked in a machine shop for two years to earn money for college. Trained as a chemist, he developed an interest in genetics and in 1900 became an assistant to Cyril George Hopkins of the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Illinois, Urbana, where he worked on corn-breeding experiments intended to increase fat and protein content. After receiving an M.S. degree in 1904, he worked for four years as an agronomist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, where he continued his experiments with corn. East's genetic investigations, with independent work by the geneticist and botanist George Harrison Shull, led to the development of hybrid corn. The commercial production of hybrid seed corn was made possible by the work of Donald F. Jones, a student of East. In 1909 East joined the faculty of Harvard University. He helped found the journal Genetics in 1916. Though he continued his work in genetics, his later contributions to the field were generally of a more theoretical nature. He wrote a number of books on science and international affairs.