| Citation | Ford, Edmund Brisco (Oxford). M.A., B.Sc. Reader in Genetics, and University Demonstrator in the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, University of Oxford.
Distinguished for his work on genetics. As a result of research on physiological genetics in 'Gammarus', he was one of the first to direct attention to the existence and significance of genes controlling the time of onset and rate of development of processes (Brit. J. Exp. Biol., 5, 1927). For more than twenty years he has studied the relation between abundance and variability in a butterfly colony, in which he demonstrated an evolutionary change (Trans. Ent. Soc., 1930). In collaboration with Professor R A Fisher, he established for the first time the greater variability of abundant than of rare species, as suggested by Darwin (Trans. Ent. Soc., 1928). He has made various contributions to the genetics of Lepidoptera (Trans. R. Ent. Soc., 1936; Biol. Rev., 1937), and studied the modification of the effects of genes by selection, the method of obtaining absolute numbers of populations, and the pigments of the Lepidoptera. |