George Harrison Shull


George Harrison Shull was an American plant geneticist and the younger brother of botanical illustrator and plant breeder J. Marion Shull. He was born on a farm in Clark County, Ohio, graduated from Antioch College in 1901 and from the University of Chicago in 1904, served as botanical expert to the Bureau of Plant Industry in 1903–1904, and thenceforth was a botanical investigator of the Carnegie Institution at the Station for Experimental Evolution, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, giving special attention to the results of Luther Burbank's work.
Shull played an important role in the development of hybrid maize which had great impact upon global agriculture. As a geneticist, Shull worked with maize plants. He was interested in pure breeds not for their economic value but for his experiments in genetics. He produced maize breeds that bred true and then crossed these strains. The hybrid offspring of the sickly pure breeds were vigorous and predictable.
In short, an ideal economic maize resulted from a project motivated purely to advance science. For his work on maize, Shull was awarded the Public Welfare Medal from the United States [National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences] in 1948. He was also elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.
He also described heterosis in maize in 1908 and made a number of other key discoveries in the emerging field of genetics. Shull was the founder of the scientific journal Genetics.
He was called George in distinction from his son Harrison Shull, also a distinguished scientist, specializing in the quantum mechanics of small-molecule electronic spectra.

Work with Luther Burbank

Shull worked with Luther Burbank from 1906 to 1914 in an attempt to publish Burbank's plant work on the behalf of the Carnegie Institution. Ultimately unable to get Burbank's full cooperation, and finding that in the Luther Burbank Press's 1914 publication Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries, Their Practical Application "considerable sections are almost word for word the same as my... manuscript," Shull never published his work.

Personal life

Shull married Ella Amanda Hollar in July 1906. A daughter, Elizabeth Ellen, born May 8, 1907, did not survive her birth. Ella died two weeks later. All are buried in Santa Rosa, California, in the Santa Rosa [Odd Fellows Cemetery]. Shull married Mary Julia Nicholl on August 26, 1909. He and his second wife had six children.

Death

Shull died in Princeton on September 28, 1954. His cremains were buried in Santa Rosa, California where his first wife was buried. His second wife's remains were also buried there twelve years later.