Reginald Punnett

Reginald Crundall Punnett FRS (/ˈpʌnɪt/; 20 June 1875 – 3 January 1967) was a British geneticist who co-founded, with William Bateson, the Journal of Genetics in 1910. Punnett is probably best remembered today as the creator of the Punnett square, a tool still used by biologists to predict the probability of possible genotypes of offspring. His Mendelism (1905) is sometimes said to have been the first textbook on genetics; it was probably the first popular science book to introduce genetics to the public.

Life and work

Reginald Punnett was born in 1875 in the town of Tonbridge in Kent, England. While recovering from a childhood bout of appendicitis, Punnett became acquainted with Jardine's Naturalist's Library and developed an interest in natural history. Punnett was educated at Clifton College.

Attending Gonville and Caius College at the University of Cambridge, Punnett earned a degree in zoology in 1898, and a masters in 1901. Between these degrees he worked as a demonstrator and part-time lecturer at the University of St. Andrew's Natural History Department. In October 1901, Punnett was back at Cambridge when he was elected to a Fellowship at Gonville and Caius College, working in zoology, primarily the study of worms, specifically nemerteans. It was during this time that he and William Bateson began a research collaboration, which lasted several years.