Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975) synthesized field study and laboratory experimentation in the study of natural selection, laying a foundation for Darwinian evolutionary theory.

Few biologists have made more important contributions to 20th-century evolutionary theory than Theodosius Dobzhansky. His work represents a major part of the synthesis of field study, laboratory experimentation, and classical Mendelian theory that became a powerful foundation for Darwinian theory. Dobzhansky's writings were prolific and influential, comprising over 550 papers and some dozen books. He wrote not only about the technical details of evolution in natural populations, but also about the social and philosophical sides of evolution--including the future evolution of the human species. He lived according to his own dictum, the title of a paper in 1972: "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."

Born on January 25, 1900, in Nemirov, Russia, a small town 200 kilometers southeast of Kiev in the Ukraine, Dobzhansky was the...