A notable triumvirate of maize geneticists.

W ITH the current explosive rate of progress in genetics, we are less likely than ever before to devote much thought to those whose research established the firm foundation on which our science has been built. In this essay, I pay tribute to a distinguished figure in the development of plant genetics, EDWARD M. EAST, and to two of his first graduate students, ROLLINS A. EMERSON and DONALD F. JONES. All three figured prominently in research that made maize a model system for plant genetics and transformed the methods used by plant breeders to improve the yield and agronomic qualities of the maize species. Each was from the Midwest-East from Illinois, EMERSON from Nebraska, and JONES from Kansas-so it is ironic that virtually all the research on a quintessentially Midwestern crop for which they are known was carried out in the Northeast. All were much honored by their contemporaries, including their election to the National Academy of Sciences, and each served as president of the Genetics Society of America. EDWARD EAST had been educated in another discipline, like all of the first generation of geneticists. EAST was trained as a chemist at the University of Illinois. He became interested in maize breeding in his position at Illinois as an assistant to C. G. HOPKINS, who was engaged in experiments to change the oil and protein content of maize through selection. This effort is continuing to the present time and is still making progress in the lines selected for higher contents. EAST’S task was to conduct the chemical analyses of the various samples, a task he apparently regarded as thoroughly routine. He was rescued by the offer of a position by the director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station in New Haven, E. H. JENKINS. JENKINS, also a chemist, had been impressed by the Illinois selection experiments. Desiring to initiate such research at Connecticut, he hired EAST on HOPKINS’S recommendation.