1902-1992
Geneticist

Background.

Barbara McClintock was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn. McClintock later described herself in youth as someone who enjoyed social occasions well enough but who valued most of all the time she spent "thinking about things." Her mother initially opposed her daughter's pursuit of a college degree as "unfeminine" — and worried that she might become "a strange person, a person that didn't belong to society." As a result, after completing high school, the highly talented young scientist spent a year working for an employment agency. In 1919, however, she enrolled at Cornell University, where in 1923 she earned her B.S. in biology, and in 1927 she completed her Ph.D. in the same field.

Early Research.

While in graduate school McClintock began her research on the chromosome structure of the maize plant. It was this research that eventually led to...