Jiazhen Tan / Chia-chen Tan, Chinese geneticist (Ningbo, Zhejiang Province 15 September 1909 – Shanghai 01 November 2008)

Authored over 100 articles

Produced many influential works (known as Chinese Morgan)

With T. Dobzhansky & A.H. Sturtevant used the overlapping inversions to infer the phylogeny of the different chromosome types (1930s)

Pioneer in studying the genetic basis of sexual isolation

With H. Dobzhansky. Studies on hybrid sterility. III. A comparison of the chromosome structure in two related species, Drosophila pseudoobscura and Drosophila miranda. Zeits. In-dukt. Abstammung. Verebrungsl. 72:88-113, 1936

Proved how gene evolved through repetition and differentiation by investigating the nature of the race-differential chromosomes in Drosophila montium

The nature of the race-differential chromosomes in Drosophila montium De Meijere. Sci. Rec. 1:178-87, 1942

Found the phenomenon of mosaic dominance in the color pattern inheritance of the beetle

Mosaic dominance in the inheritance of color patterns in the lady-bird beetles Harmonia axyridis. Genetics 31:195-210, 1946

HONOURS

Honorary Life Member, New York Academy of Sciences (1999)

Foreign Member, US National Academy of Sciences (1985) & Italian National Academy of Sciences (1987)

Asteroid 3542 Tanjiazhen