Early life Dobzhansky was born on January 25, 1900, He then moved to Leningrad (today
St. Petersburg) to study under
Yuri Filipchenko, where a
Drosophila melanogaster laboratory had been established. On August 8, 1924, Dobzhansky married geneticist Natalia "Natasha" Sivertzeva, who was working with
Ivan Schmalhausen in Kiev. The Dobzhanskys had one daughter, known under her married name as
Sophie Coe, an anthropologist, food historian, and author, primarily known for her work on the
history of chocolate. Before immigrating to the United States, Dobzhansky published 35 scientific works on entomology and genetics.
America Dobzhansky immigrated to the United States in 1927 on a work–study scholarship from the International Education Board of the
Rockefeller Foundation. Upon arriving in New York City on December 27, he joined the
Drosophila Group at Columbia University working alongside
Thomas Hunt Morgan and
Alfred Sturtevant. Their work provided crucial information on Drosophila cytogenetics. Additionally, Dobzhansky and his team helped establish
Drosophila pseudoobscura, within the genus
Drosophila, as a favorable model organism in evolutionary-biological studies ever since they published their influential works. Dobzhansky's original mindset (after studying alongside
Yuri Filipchenko), was that there were serious doubts on using data obtained from phenomena happening in local populations (
microevolution) and phenomena happening on a global scale (
macroevolution). Filipchenko also believed that there were only two types of inheritance:
Mendelian inheritance of variation within species, and Non-Mendelian inheritance of variation in a macroevolutionary sense. Dobzhansky later stated that Filipchenko "bet on the wrong horse". He followed Morgan to the
California Institute of Technology from 1930 to 1940. On the basis of his experiments, he articulated the idea that
reproductive isolation can be caused by differences in presence of microbial symbionts between populations. In 1937, he published one of the major works of the
modern evolutionary synthesis, the synthesis of
evolutionary biology with
genetics, titled
Genetics and the Origin of Species, which amongst other things, defined
evolution as "a change in the
frequency of an allele within a
gene pool". Dobzhansky's work was instrumental in spreading the idea that it is through mutations in genes that
natural selection takes place. Also in 1937, he became a
naturalized citizen of the United States. During this time, he had a very public falling out with one of his
Drosophila collaborators,
Alfred Sturtevant, based primarily in professional competition. He returned to
Columbia University from 1940 to 1962. Among his students was geneticist
Bruce Wallace. In 1941, Dobzhansky was awarded the
Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the
National Academy of Sciences, of which he was also a member. He was elected to the
American Philosophical Society in 1942. In 1943, the
University of São Paulo awarded him an
honorary doctorate. He was one of the signatories of the 1950
UNESCO statement
The Race Question. He was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1953. He then moved to the Rockefeller Institute (shortly to become
Rockefeller University) until his retirement in 1971. In 1972 he was elected the founding president of the
Behavior Genetics Association, and was recognized by the society for his role in
behavior genetics, and the founding of the society by the creation of the Dobzhansky Award (for a lifetime of outstanding scholarship in behavior genetics). Dobzhansky's work in the field of evolutionary genetics, with the help of
Sewall Wright, integrated standards of the theoretical, natural historical, and experimental work. Dobzhansky was renowned as the president of the
Genetics Society of America in 1941, president of the
American Society of Naturalists in 1950, president of the
Society for the Study of Evolution in 1951, president of the
American Society of Zoologists in 1963, a member of the board of directors of the
American Eugenics Society in 1964, and president of the American
Teilhard de Chardin Association in 1969.
Genetics and the Origin of Species Theodosius Dobzhansky published three editions of his book
Genetics and the Origin of Species. Although the book was meant for people with a background in biology, it was easily understood. In the fields of genetics and evolution, Dobzhansky's book is acknowledged as one of the most important books ever written. With each revision of
Genetics and the Origin of Species, Dobzhansky added new material on crucial, up-to-date topics, and removed material he deemed to be no longer crucial. His book sparked trends in genetic research and theory. The first edition of
Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937) highlighted the most recent discoveries in genetics and how they applied to the concept of evolution. Dobzhansky explained how three levels could describe the processes of evolutionary population genetics: (1) the origin of raw materials by mutations of genes and chromosomes, (2) the changes in populations by changes in frequencies and combinations of mutations, (3) the fixation of changes by reproductive isolation. The new chapter on Adaptive Polymorphism highlighted Dobzhansky's research since the second edition. He included precise, quantitative evidence on effective
natural selection in laboratory and free populations. His concern with the interface between humans and biology may have come from different factors. The main factor would be the race prejudice that contributed in Europe that triggered
WWII. His concern also dealt with religion in human life which he speaks about in his book
The Biology of Ultimate Concern in 1967. "The pervasiveness of genetic variation provides the biological foundation of human individuality".
Final illness and the "Light of Evolution" Dobzhansky's wife Natasha died of
coronary thrombosis on February 22, 1969. Earlier (on June 1, 1968), Theodosius had been diagnosed with
lymphocytic leukemia (a chronic form of leukemia), and had been given a few months to a few years to live. He retired in 1971, moving to the
University of California, Davis where his student
Francisco J. Ayala had been made assistant professor, and where he continued working as an emeritus professor. He published one of his most famous essays "
Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" in 1973, influenced by the paleontologist and priest
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. By 1975, his leukemia had become more severe, and on November 11 he traveled to
San Jacinto, California, for treatment and care. Working until his last day as a professor of genetics, Dobzhansky died (from heart failure) on December 18, 1975, in Davis, California. ==Publications==