Richard Goldschmidt

Who is this?

Richard Benedict Goldschmidt (April 12, 1878 – April 24, 1958) was a German geneticist. He is considered the first to attempt to integrate genetics, development, and evolution. He pioneered understanding of reaction norms, genetic assimilation, dynamical genetics, sex determination, and heterochrony. Controversially, Goldschmidt advanced a model of macroevolution through macromutations popularly known as the "Hopeful Monster" hypothesis. Goldschmidt also described the nervous system of the nematode, a piece of work that influenced Sydney Brenner to study the "wiring diagram" of Caenorhabditis elegans, winning Brenner and his colleagues the Nobel Prize in 2002.

Career

1. 1878
   Born
2. 1935
   Won honorary doctor of the University of Madrid Complutense
3. 1939
   Won Silliman Memorial Lectures
4. 1950
   Member of Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
5. 1951
   Won Guggenheim Fellowship
6. 1958
   Passed away
7. Member of German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
8. Member of Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
9. Won Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi

Trivia

• •Place of birth: Frankfurt
• •Citizenship: German Reich, United States
• •Known as: biologist, zoologist, botanist, geneticist