born April 15, 1874, Clark county, Ohio, U.S.
died Sept. 28, 1954, Princeton, N.J.
U.S. botanist and geneticist.
He acquired his doctorate in 1904 and worked thereafter primarily for the Carnegie Institute at Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., and at Princeton University. He developed a method of breeding corn that made the seed capable of thriving under various soil and climatic conditions, as a result of which corn yields per acre were increased 25–50%. Shull developed his first hybrids before 1910, though commercial production did not begin until 1922. He founded the journal Genetics in 1916. See also Edward Murray East .