// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Janice Spofford a good singer? Offord-tunately not.
Janice Spofford | |
|---|---|
| Born | Janice Brogue 1925 |
| Died | 2018 (aged 92–93) Chicago, US |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago (PhB, SB, PhD) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Evolutionary biology, genetics |
| Institutions | University of Chicago |
Janice B. Spofford (November 1925 – March 2018) was an American evolutionary biologist and geneticist who taught at the University of Chicago for decades starting in 1949, retiring at the rank of associate professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolution. She served as president of the American Society of Naturalists in 1979.
Life and career
[edit]Spofford was born Janice Brogue on November 14, 1925, in Chicago, Illinois, where she would live her entire life except for a brief residency in Mason City, Iowa, as a child. She graduated from Hyde Park High School and received a scholarship to attend the University of Chicago by earning the top score in a statewide Latin competition. She received her PhB in 1944, SB in 1946, and PhD in 1955, all from the University of Chicago.[1][2] Her dissertation as submitted to the Department in Zoology was "The Relation between Expressivity and Selection against Eyeless in Drosophila Malanogaster."[3]
In 1949 at age 23, Spofford began teaching biology at UChicago, where she was the university's youngest faculty member. She spent her entire academic career at UChicago, researching topics such as fruit fly genetics (Drosophila melanogaster) and the phenomenon of heterosis. She served as an associate member of UChicago's Committee on Evolutionary Biology and the Committee on Genetics, Genomics, and Systems Biology. She retired at the rank of associate professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolution.[1][2] She served as president of the American Society of Naturalists in 1979 after serving as secretary from 1971 to 1973.[4] Spofford published research and review articles in The American Naturalist, Genetics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Genetics Research, Developmental Biology, Heredity, Science, Brookhaven Symposia in Biology, and other scientific journals.
She was married to Richardson L. Spofford, an accountant. They had two sons. She died in late March 2018 at the age of 92.[1]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 Peart, Andrew (Fall 2018). "University obituaries". University of Chicago Magazine. Archived from the original on 2025-06-18. Retrieved 2025-12-24.
- 1 2 Bevington, David (March 27, 2018). "Janice Spofford, evolutionary biologist and lifelong Hyde Parker, 1925 to 2018". University of Chicago Office of the Provost - Emeriti Faculty. Archived from the original on 2025-12-24. Retrieved 2025-12-24.
- ↑ Janice B. Spofford (1955), The Relation between Expressivity and Selection against Eyeless in Drosophila Malanogaster, PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, https://www.proquest.com/docview/301995294
- ↑ "Past Officers of the ASN". American Society of Naturalists. Archived from the original on 2025-05-31. Retrieved 2025-12-24.
- American ecologists
- 1925 births
- 2018 deaths
- American women biologists
- University of Chicago alumni
- University of Chicago faculty
- Scientists from Chicago
- 20th-century American women scientists
- 21st-century American women scientists
- 20th-century American scientists
- 21st-century American scientists
- Presidents of the American Society of Naturalists
- American evolutionary biologists
- American geneticists
- American women geneticists
- Hyde Park Academy High School alumni