“…this Brazilian venture…” A brief biography of Theodosius Dobzhansky before he arrived in Brazil

Abstract

This paper describes life and career of Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975) until he arrived in Brazil in 1943. During his years in Russia, Dobzhansky began his entomology studies and undertook research expeditions to Central Asia to study livestock, which focused on speciation biology. Once he arrived in the United States Dobzhansky began working with Drosophila melanogaster with Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945) at Columbia University. Once Morgan relocated to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Dobzhansky started collaborating with his colleague, Alfred Henry Sturtevant (1891-1970), on studies of a wild cousin of Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila pseudoobscura. Dobzhansky and Sturtevant’s friendship and collaboration suffered due to several factors, including most importantly, their differing approaches to Drosophila pseudoobscura as influenced by their different conceptions of the purpose of their work. While Sturtevant studied the flies using the same techniques as his studies of the domestic Drosophila melanogaster, Dobzhansky studied Drosophila pseudoobscura in the field considering his broader dictum that “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.”