Newton Morton
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| Newton E. Morton | |
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Newton Morton in the 1950's
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| Born | December 21, 1929 Camden, New Jersey, USA |
| Residence | Southampton, England |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Genetic epidemiology |
| Institutions | |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Founder of the field of genetic epidemiology |
| Influences | James F. Crow and Sewall Wright |
| Notable awards | William Allan Award (1962) |
| Children | 5 |
Newton Ennis Morton (born 21 December 1929) is a retired American population geneticist and one of the founders of the field of genetic epidemiology.[1]
Early life and education
Morton was born in Camden, New Jersey as a first child.[2] After 3 months his family moved to New Haven, Connecticut. His interest in science started at an early age where he would collect butterflies, thinking he wanted to be an entomologist. Morton attended the Hopkins High School, later transferring to Swarthmore College for 2 years. He lost enthusiasm for entomology, so instead he decided to pursue a career in genetics after being inspired by Dobzhansky's book, Genetics and the Origin of Species.[3]
After marrying a woman from Hawaii, Morton decided to attend the University of Hawaii to earn a BA in Zoology, finishing his degree in 1951. He completed a thesis on Drosophila at the University of Wisconsin, but was more interested in the work of James F. Crow and Sewall Wright. Morton then worked with Crow on the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Japan between the years of 1952-1953. This inspired him to pursue a career in human genetics. He earned a PhD in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin in 1955.[3]
Academic career
Morton's career began in Japan, working on the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. There he researched the effect of exposure to atomic bombs, alongside the effect on first generation offspring. He published papers on the linkage of blood groups with diseases,[4] Nonrandomness of consanguineous marriage[5] and the inheritance of human birth weight.[6] In 1955-1956 Morton was made a National Cancer Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin. He worked in the faculty at the university, first as an assistant professor in 1956, later becoming an associate professor in 1960 for 2 years.[3] At the faculty, Morton conducted a study of over 180,000 births.[7]
In 1962, Morton won the William Allan Award for his contribution in the field of human genetics.[8] In that same year he set up the department of genetics, realising that this was no longer feasible due to administrative problems, he instead decided to set up the Population Genetics Laboratory at Hawaii in 1954. He was appointed director of the facility and stayed there for 21 years. He left Hawaii in 1985, where he spent 2 years at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York as the head of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.[3] In 1988 Morton acquired a position as professor and director of the Genetic Epidemiology Group at the University of Southampton.[9][10] In 1999, he had a book on the recent advances of genetic epidemiology published in his honor to celebrate his 70th birthday.[11] He has been a Senior Professional Fellow in Human Genetics from 1995 onward. Morton retired from the University of Southampton in April 2011 due to age and alzheimer's related health problems.[3]
Personal life
Morton has 5 children and 7 grandchildren.[3]
References
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