Reginald C. PunnettBorn 20 Jun 1875; died 3 Jan 1967 at age 91. Reginald Crundall Punnett was an English geneticist who, with the English biologist William Bateson, were among the first English Mendelian geneticists. They reported the discovery of two new genetic principles: the first account of genetic linkage in sweet pea; and gene interaction (1905). Punnett devised the Punnett square to depict the number and variety of genetic combinations. Punnett had a role in connecting Mendelism with statistics. In 1908, Punnett was asked at a lecture to explain, “ if brown eyes were dominant, then why wasn't the whole country becoming brown-eyed?” Punnett in turn asked his friend the mathematician, G. H. Hardy. Out of this conversation came the Hardy-Weinberg Law which calculates how population affects genetic inheritance. |
