1900-1975

Russian-American Population Geneticist and Entomologist

Theodosius Dobzhansky (originally Feodosy Grigorevich Dobrzhanskii), one of the most influential biologists of the twentieth century, was born in the small city of Nemirov, Ukraine, on January 25, 1900. He was educated at home until 1910, when his parents moved to the outskirts of Kiev. He began to collect butterflies during his second year of Gymnasium (formal school) and by age 12 had decided to become a biologist. He attended his first amateur scientific excursion and was impressed by reading Charles Darwin's (1809-1882) Origin of Species at the age of 15.

At the Gymnasium Dobzhansky met Victor Luchnik (1892-1936), who invited Dobzhansky to join the local entomological society. On Luchnik's advice Dobzhansky decided to specialize in ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) and began to collect and dissect them. His participation in this entomological circle influenced his later scientific ideas, leading him...