Rollins A. Emerson

(1873-1947) lived near Franklin, Franklin County, and in Lincoln. Plant geneticist, educator, considered a pioneer in researching the genetics of maize, initiated in 1928 a central clearinghouse for seed stocks and exchange of ideas among maize geneticists worldwide, author and co-author of 70 scientific papers, elected to National Academy of Sciences in 1927, directed a large number of graduate students at Cornell University who later became leaders in the field, including Nobel Prize winner George W. Beadle. Consult New York Times obituary, December 9, 1947, p. 33 and National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Vol 25 (1949) 313-323 and Dictionary of American Biography, Sup 4 (1974) 252-253 and American National Biography, Vol 7 (1999) 493-494.

Back to Agriculture
Back to Categories