Neel, James Van Gundia

▪ 2001

      American geneticist (b. March 22, 1915, Hamilton, Ohio—d. Feb. 1, 2000, Ann Arbor, Mich.), was a pioneer in the field of genetics; his studies provided evidence of the genetic basis of numerous diseases, including sickle-cell anemia. In the late 1940s, as acting director of field studies for the National Research Council's Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, he led studies of the effects of radiation on survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Later, at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1956, he founded one of the nation's first departments of human genetics.

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