Sinnott, Edmund W.

Sinnott, Edmund W. (Ware) (1888–1968) botanist, educator; born in Cambridge, Mass. He taught at Harvard (1908–15), during which period he made botanical expeditions to Australasia. He then moved to the Connecticut Agricultural College (1915–28), before going on to Barnard College (1928–39), Columbia University (1939–40) and Yale (1940–56). During the 1920s and 1930s he performed extensive research on the genetic determination of fruit morphology, especially squashes. He brought Yale to prominence in botany as director of Yale's Sheffield School (1945–56), and later as dean of the Yale graduate school (1950–56). From 1945 onward, he expounded his philosophy that science can bring about human solidarity.