Mildred Hoge Richards
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Mildred Albro Hoge Richards (July 7, 1885 September 6, 1968) was an American
geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic process ...
and
zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...
who discovered, among other things, the gene responsible for development of the eye.


Early life and education

Mildred Hoge was born in
Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...
, the daughter of James Thornton and Fanny Stead Hoge. Her brother, Joseph Franklin Dix Hoge, was four years older. Later in her life, in the 1950s, Hoge compiled genealogies of a couple branches of her family, focusing on the descendants of Samuel Hogg of Wilmington, Delaware, and the Kunkel family, of Frederick, Maryland. Hoge's education included an A.B. in
zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...
from
Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1885 as a Nonsectarian, nonsecterian Women's colleges in the United States, ...
in 1908, and an M.A. from
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
in 1912. In that year, Hoge published perhaps her first academic paper examining punishment and reward as motivators in animal models.


Career

As
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
was getting under way, Hoge discovered a fly gene, which she called "eyeless", because a mutation in the gene resulted in the dramatic loss of eyes. In her paper announcing the discovery of eyeless, she managed to breed the fragile and short-lived mutant flies, quantified and characterized crosses of eyeless with other known mutants, and determined from those interactions that the eyeless gene was located on the 4th of four fly chromosomes. She was trained by the Nobel-prize winning geneticist
Thomas Hunt Morgan Thomas Hunt Morgan (September 25, 1866 – December 4, 1945) was an Americans, American evolutionary biologist, geneticist, Embryology, embryologist, and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries e ...
and received her Ph.D. in
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 ...
from Columbia University in 1914. A couple of her genetics papers including the one on the eyeless gene were referenced in Morgan's seminal book ''The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity''. The other paper by her that Morgan referenced examined the effects of temperature on
Mendelian Mendelian inheritance (also known as Mendelism) is a type of biological inheritance following the principles originally proposed by Gregor Mendel in 1865 and 1866, re-discovered in 1900 by Hugo de Vries and Carl Correns, and later popularized ...
trait development. Morgan and his students, like Hoge, used the common fruit fly (''Drosophila melanogaster'') to study how genes influenced observable physical traits. The work they did in the early 1900s established the fruit fly as a powerful model organism for genetic studies. In the century after Morgan's Fly Room was established at Columbia, fly genetics research has yielded numerous discoveries of basic biological mechanisms operating in species as diverse as single-celled yeast to humans. One example is the critical regulatory gene for the development of eyes in everything from simple marine worms to humans, which today we know as the transcription factor gene PAX6, discovered by Hoge. Soon after receiving her Ph.D., Hoge worked as an instructor in zoology at Indiana University from 1914 to 1918, while her future husband taught at the University of Texas, Austin, and Wabash College in Indiana during this period. Hoge continued publishing on the genetics of the fly eye including a paper discussing genes on the 3rd chromosome that had an effect on eye color. Hoge had married Aute Richards in 1917, and in 1920 he moved to the
University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...
, where he became professor and head of the department of zoology and held various other positions until he retired in 1950. They remained in Oklahoma through the depths of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, and one of the
Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...
projects started in 1934 was the construction of a new Biological Sciences building which was named Richards Hall in his honor. She was unable to work at the University of Oklahoma, presumably because of nepotism rules, and was only able to secure an assistant professorship for a year before she retired in 1948. Hoge Richards remained active in genetics despite the career limitations in Oklahoma. In 1925 she published a paper on the anatomy of the fly eye with and without the mutation she discovered in 1914. This paper showcased her very fine dissections of the fly head and revealed the extent to which the eye and adjacent neural structures were disrupted by mutations in the eyeless gene. This work established the physical scope of the eyeless gene and its role in development of various eye structures. In 1933, Hoge published a paper examining the heritability of allergies, which at the time was associated with migraines.


Personal life and retirement

Hoge married Aute Richards on December 19, 1917. They had two sons. After Aute's retirement from the University of Oklahoma, the couple moved to Tucson, Arizona, where they lived out their lives. She died on September 6, 1968, in Tucson.


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoge Richards, Mildred 1885 births 1968 deaths American women geneticists American geneticists 20th-century American zoologists American women zoologists Scientists from Baltimore Goucher College alumni Columbia University alumni 20th-century American women scientists