Doctoral Dissertation Research: Robert Spencer Jennings, Tracy M. Sonneborn, and the Career of American Protozoan Genetics

博士论文研究：罗伯特·斯宾塞·詹宁斯、特雷西·M·索恩伯恩和美国原生动物遗传学的职业

• 批准号: 9421803
• 负责人: Frederick Churchill
• 金额: $ 0.5万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1995
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1995-03-01 至 1996-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9421803&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Robert; Spencer

The founders of the American protozoan genetics program, Herbert Spencer Jennings and Tracy M. Sonneborn, were highly respected leaders in the twentieth-century biological community. The research program they created and their primary research organism, Paramecium aurelia, however, have not impacted significantly the corpus of this century's genetic thought. The goal of Ms. Judith Schloegel's dissertation which is being written under the direction of Professor Churchill is to illuminate the circumstances underlying this paradoxical disparity between the success of these researchers and their experimental program. This research serves as the basis for a triple biography of Jennings, Sonneborn, and the unicellular organism, the Paramecium. Examination of the staunchly anti-reductionist mode of experimental inquiry of Jennings and Sonneborn, and the social and political commitments which they embraced, will illuminate the career of Paramecium in genetic research. It will also enable comparison of the protozoan research program with other relevant organismic programs. Extensive archival research will elucidate the important role of numerous relationships, between student and teacher, between competing research programs, and between researcher and genetic organism, for the mode of experimental inquiry practiced, and the type of knowledge produced by an organism. Discerning these relationships will contribute to a richer understanding of the development of genetic knowledge in twentieth-century America.

美国原生动物遗传学项目的创始人赫伯特斯宾塞詹宁斯和特雷西M。Sonneborn是二十世纪生物界备受尊敬的领导者。然而，他们创建的研究计划和他们的主要研究生物草履虫奥雷利亚并没有对本世纪的遗传学思想产生重大影响。朱迪思·施洛格尔女士的论文是在丘吉尔教授的指导下撰写的，其目的是阐明这些研究人员的成功与他们的实验计划之间这种自相矛盾的差距背后的情况。 这项研究为詹宁斯、索恩伯恩和单细胞生物草履虫的三重传记奠定了基础。考察詹宁斯和索恩伯恩坚定的反还原论的实验研究模式，以及他们所接受的社会和政治承诺，将阐明草履虫在遗传研究中的职业生涯。它还将使原生动物研究计划与其他相关的器官计划进行比较。广泛的档案研究将阐明许多关系的重要作用，学生和教师之间，相互竞争的研究项目之间，研究人员和遗传生物之间，实践的实验探究模式，以及由生物产生的知识类型。识别这些关系将有助于更丰富地了解20世纪美国遗传知识的发展。