Nikolai Vavilov was a Russian botanist, geneticist and agronomist. He was one of the great minds of the 20th century, but tragically died of starvation in prison under the Stalin regime.
Gregor Mendel was an Austrian botanist, who is now widely regarded as the father of modern genetics.
George Simpson was an American palaeontologist whose work helped to reconcile the fields of palaeontology and genetics.
Barbara McClintock was an American geneticist. Her discovery of transposons revolutionised our understanding of genetics. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1983.
