John Doebley
John F. Doebley is an American plant geneticist whose main area of interest is how genes drive plant development and evolution. He has spent the last two decades examining the genetic differences and similarities between teosinte and maize and has cloned the major genes that cause the visible differences between these two very different plants.
He was part of the team that is credited with first finding, in 2002, that maize had been domesticated only once, about 9000 years ago, and then spread throughout the Americas.
John Doebley began his undergraduate education as a biology major at West Chester State College in West Chester, Pennsylvania. However, after taking a class by a particularly interesting lecturer, he decided to switch his major to anthropology.
After he graduated with a degree in anthropology in 1974, he entered a master's programme in anthropology at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. Upon completion of this degree in 1976, he began a PhD programme at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Here he worked with botany professor Hugh Iltis, travelling to Mexico to collect teosinte.
He was part of the team that is credited with first finding, in 2002, that maize had been domesticated only once, about 9000 years ago, and then spread throughout the Americas.
John Doebley began his undergraduate education as a biology major at West Chester State College in West Chester, Pennsylvania. However, after taking a class by a particularly interesting lecturer, he decided to switch his major to anthropology.
After he graduated with a degree in anthropology in 1974, he entered a master's programme in anthropology at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. Upon completion of this degree in 1976, he began a PhD programme at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Here he worked with botany professor Hugh Iltis, travelling to Mexico to collect teosinte.
