James Meadows Rendel (16 May 1915 - 4 February 2001) was an Australian agricultural scientist who specialised in animal

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...

and was Chief of the

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

Division of Animal Genetics from 1959 to 1976. He was the grandson of

Lytton Strachey Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of ''Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychology, psychologic ...

's sister

Dorothy Bussy Dorothy Bussy ( Strachey; 24 July 1865 – 1 May 1960) was an English novelist and translator, close to the Bloomsbury Group. Family background and childhood Dorothy Bussy was a member of the Strachey family. Her mother was suffragist J ...

, and the nephew of Frances Partridge.Robertson, Celia
''Who Was Sophie?: The Two Lives of My Grandmother: Poet and Stranger''
(2008).

Early life

Rendel was the son of Col. Richard Meadows Rendel in Farnham, England and educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...

and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, where he completed his PhD as a student of the geneticist

J. B. S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-born scientist who later moved to India and acquired Indian citizenship. He worked in the fields of physiology, genetics, evolutionary ...

. During the Second World War he was attached to RAF Coastal Command, where he was involved in experiments on escape from submarines, one of which left him with permanent lung damage.

Career

After the war Rendel moved to Edinburgh to do animal genetics research at

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...

, where he was jointly in charge of a project on dairy research, establishing the fundamental principles of artificial insemination in dairy progeny-testing programmes. In 1951 he travelled to Australia to join

and establish a team at the University of Sydney to teach animal genetics and develop a research programme into animal breeding methods for domestic fowl, sheep, dairy and beef cattle. The team became the Animal Genetics Division of CSIRO in 1959. During that period he was a joint founder of the Genetics Society of Australia. In the 1960s he established a molecular biology group within the Animal Genetics Division, which later became the CSIRO Molecular and Cellular Biology Unit. His personal interest was in breeding cattle to build up the livestock industry in the tropical and sub-tropical regions. This led to the breeding of the

Belmont Red Belmont Red is a breed of beef cattle developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) during 1954 in response to the need in the Australian Tropics for cattle which would improve the fertility of '' Bos indic ...

. When a new tropical beef-cattle research laboratory in Rockhampton coincided with his retirement, it was named the James Rendel Laboratory in honour of his contribution to the cattle industry.

Later life

After retirement in 1980, Rendel moved to Drinkstone Green in Suffolk, England, where he bred Booroola sheep imported from Australia. However, seven years later he returned to continue his retirement in the Blue Mountains of Australia. He died there in 2001. Rendel married twice, first to the poet

Joan Adeney Easdale Joan Adeney Easdale (23 January 1913 – 10 June 1998) was an English poet from Sevenoaks, Kent. Her mother was the author Gladys Ellen Easdale, née Adeney (1875-1970). Her father, Robert Carse Easdale, left her mother during the First World War ...

and secondly to Marie Tresham Davies. He had two sons and four daughters. He was awarded the

Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture The Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture is a biennial award given by the Australian Academy of Science to recognise outstanding scientific research in the biological sciences. It was established in 1971 and honours the memory of the Nobel laureat ...

by the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

in 1981.

References

1915 births 2001 deaths Australian geneticists Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science People educated at Rugby School {{Australia-scientist-stub