Anderson, Edgar S(hannon) (1897-1969)

US botanist and geneticist. Anderson made major contributions to the study of the cytology, crossbreeding, evolution, and classification of flowering plants. He coined the term ‘introgressive hybridization’ (1938) to describe the gradual introduction of genetic material from one species to another due to repeated ‘backcrossing’, the breeding of hybrids with their parent species.

Anderson was a professor at Washington University, St Louis, before joining the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard, where he lectured until 1935. He then returned to Washington University and then joined Missouri Botanical Garden in 1952.