Wilson, Edmund Beecher (1856–1939)

US zoologist and embryologist who is considered one of the founders of modern genetics. His research programme focused on the way vertebrate cells divide. He was one of the first to describe the process of meiosis, the division of gametes (eggs and sperm) in the sexual organs during embryonic and adult life. He also investigated the role of chromosomes in heredity, particularly the sex chromosomes X and Y.

Wilson was born in Geneva, Illinois and studied medicine at Yale University and Johns Hopkins University. His research was crucial to the development of the field of genetics and in 1921 he was appointed professor of zoology at Columbia University in recognition of his contribution to the understanding of the cellular mechanisms of heredity.