Caspari, Ernst W.
Variant namesBiographical notes:
Ernst Wolfgang Caspari was a geneticist and was an assistant professor in Zoology at the University of Göttingen (1933-1935), emigrated to the United States in 1938 and held posts as a professor of biology, until 1975, at Lafayette College, University of Rochester, and Wesleyan University.
From the description of Papers, 1932-1980. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 122380096
As a doctoral student and assistant professor at the University of Göttingen, Ernst Caspari was part of Alfred Kuhn's research team investigating the developmental genetics of the mealmoth Ephestia kuhniella . In his groundbreaking work on the effects of a pleiotropic gene, Caspari helped establish the basis for sorting out the complex relationship between genes and the temporal and spatial sequence of events in ontogeny, and he contributed to Kuhn's "one gene, one enzyme" hypothesis. With the rise to power of the Nazi Party, however, Caspari's career in Germany came to an abrupt end and in 1933 he was forced to leave the country. After three years as an assistant in microbiology at the University of Istanbul, where his research was restricted to disease transmission by mosquitoes and bedbugs, he arrived in the United States in 1938 to take up a fellowship at Lafayette College, later earning an appointment as assistant professor of biology.
At Lafayette, Caspari developed fruitful collaborations with L. C. Dunn of Columbia University and his graduate student Paul R. David, working on a variety of problems in mouse genetics, and after studying the effects of the kinky tail mutant, he developed what would become a lifelong interest in behavior genetics. He also managed to revive his work with Ephestia, exploring biochemical aspects of the aa eye color mutant. He remained active in both systems, Ephestia and the mouse, for the remainder of his career.
After becoming a naturalized citizen in 1944, Caspari moved to the University of Rochester to work with another German refugee, Curt Stern, on projects associated with the genetics program of the Manhattan Project. The Rochester group was commissioned to investigate the influence of chronic irradiation by low doses of gamma rays on the mutation rates of genes in the fruitfly Drosophila .
Upon moving to Wesleyan University in 1946, Caspari returned to his interests in the developmental genetics of Ephestia, including pleiotropy (especially behavioral effects), cytoplasmic inheritance, gene modifiers, and evolutionary effects such as selective differentials. During a two-year leave of absence at the Department of Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor (1947-1949), he collaborated with several colleagues to determine the protein differences between the wildtype a+a+ genotype and the aa mutant genotype of Ephestia (as well as another moth Ptychopoda seriata ), and he investigated antibody formation in caterpillars and mitochondrial differences in genetic strains of mice. He was twice a fellow of the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (1956-1957 and 1965-1966) working in behavior genetics.
Although administrative commitments as department chair (1960-1966) somewhat curtailed Caspari's research after his return to Rochester in 1960, he and a visiting German colleague, H. J. Pohley, worked productively on somatic mutations induced by purine analogues and on interactions between the endocrine system and developing tissues in Ephestia, and he helped develop a refresher course on behavior genetics for the American Society of Zoologists in 1964. He retired to emeritus status at Rochester in 1975.
Throughout his career Caspari was active in professional organizations, serving as Vice President and President of the Genetics Society of America (1965 and 1966), and Vice President of the American Society of Naturalists (1960). He made a particular impact on the profession as an editor of both Advances in Genetics (1960-1970) and later of Genetics (1968-1972), and in service on the editorial boards of American Naturalist, Behavior Genetics, and Behavioral Science . He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1959 and was recipient of the Theodosius Dobzhansky Award for Research by the Behavior Genetics Association in 1979.
From the guide to the Ernst W. Caspari Papers, 1932-1980, (American Philosophical Society)
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Subjects:
- Advances in Genetics
- Behavior genetics
- Biology
- Developmental genetics
- Ephestia
- Genetics
- Human evolution
- Lepidoptera
- Mouse
- Political refugees
