Douglas Falconer

Born: 10 March, 1913, in Old Meldrum, Aberdeenshire

Died: 23 February, 2004, in Edinburgh, aged 90

DOUGLAS Falconer’s interest in science was stimulated when he was a pupil at the Edinburgh Academy and he went on to become professor of genetics and director of the ARC unit of animal genetics at the University of Edinburgh.

His father was a minister of the church, and both parents were from Edinburgh, returning there soon after he was born. After his schooling, he contracted tuberculosis and did not start his zoology degree at St Andrews until 1936. He studied under D’Arcy Thompson, whom he found a most stimulating teacher. Thompson was apparently willing to award the degree without bothering about exams, but the dean prevailed and Falconer graduated with 1st class honours in 1940. He then took a PhD in Cambridge, working on the behaviour of wireworms, and, after a period as a lecturer at Queen Mary College, moved into the study of mouse genetics, in which most of his important science was done.

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Initially, he was a research associate with Sir Ronald Fisher at Cambridge, working on the mapping of genes in the mouse, but a criticism by Falconer of one small part of Fisher’s work was ill received and they interacted little.

In 1947, Falconer was appointed to the genetics section of the Agricultural Research Council’s animal breeding and genetics organisation, based at the University of Edinburgh under CH Waddington. This group was to become a world leader in the analysis and understanding of the genetics of quantitative traits, such as growth rate, body composition or milk yield that are under the simultaneous influence of many genes and the environment, and in application to the improvement of livestock. He remained in the university for the rest of his career, subsequently in the ARC unit of animal genetics, of which he became director in 1968, the year he was appointed to a personal chair by the university. From 1969 to 1977, Falconer was also head of the department of genetics, which was a large but highly effective grouping, albeit a collection of little fiefdoms. He retired in 1980 but continued, as emeritus professor, to carry out research and interact with his colleagues until he was nearly 90.

With students and colleagues, Falconer was firm but remarkably patient, and polite to the point of effusiveness, sometimes perhaps with a slight hint of irony. He was a quiet, conscientious and able administrator.

In order to understand the effectiveness of selection for quantitative traits and to learn about their inheritance, he undertook a number of very significant selection experiments in the mouse, each lasting 20 or more generations (or five years). In particular, he revealed that, contrary to the then animal breeding dogma, selection for increased growth rate in a good environment was not necessarily more effective than in one where food was restricted, a model "poor" environment.

Further, in discussing this work, he showed how the genetic correlation could be used to define performance across different environments. He found that litter size could be increased substantially by successive generations of artificial selection, even though it was apparently a fitness trait subject to natural selection. In his final experiment, he used a very neat molecular technique with the high and low growth selection lines to show that the genetic influence on body size was not controlled through any single organ.

Falconer made a significant direct contribution to human genetics. He developed a simple and elegant method for estimating, from only the incidence in the population and in relatives of affected individuals, the genetic contribution to liability to diseases such as diabetes that have all-or-none expression, but that are affected by many genes.

He is, however, best known for his book Introduction to Quantitative Genetics, first published in 1960, and going through four editions and translation into many languages. It has been used by generations of students and researchers as their introduction and reference to the subject. What makes it so popular is its clarity of writing, simplicity of expression, and avoidance of technical mathematical details. Its influence has been enormous. His other writing and teaching were, likewise, models of clarity and effectiveness.

He was a keen musician, playing the flute until his mid-80s, and he also enjoyed walking, sailing and bird watching. The onset of diabetes in middle age and increasing blindness in his later years did not weaken his interest in, and commitment to, the pursuit of science.

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His contributions were recognised by election to the Royal Societies of Edinburgh and London, but he remained modest and self-effacing.

Falconer married Margaret Duke, a classicist and teacher, in 1942. She and their two sons survive him.