The Mendelianum Committee of the Moravian Museum
will award to 2024 Mendel Memorial Medal
to Daniel L. Hartl for his contribution to the development of Gregor Mendel's legacy and the interpretation of his scientific work.
The medal, which is awarded annually, recognizes significant contributions to the advancement of Mendel’s scientific and cultural legacy.
Daniel L. Hartl (born 1943) is the Higgins Professor of Biology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He also is a Past President of the Genetics Society of America and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, and very well known as a population geneticist. He has authored more than 400 scientific articles and more than 35 books in various aspects of genetics and evolution.
Daniel L. Hartl worked extensively with Vítězslav Orel (former head of the Mendelianum in 1965-1989) on countering some of the revisionist history of Mendel in the 1990s, especially in response to R. C. Olby’s publications. He recently published an article on Mendel in 2022, and published others in previous years. The awarding of the Mendel Memorial Medal is a tribute to his dedication and achievements in this field.
Here is a selection of some of his key publications on Mendel:
Hartl D. L. (2022). Gregor Johann Mendel: From peasant to priest, pedagogue, and prelate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(30), e2121953119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2121953119
Franklin, A., Edwards, A. W. F., Fairbanks, D. J., Hartl, D, L. & Seidenfeld, T. (2008). Ending the Mendel-Fisher Controversy. University of Pittsburgh Press. https://upittpress.org/books/9780822959861/
Hartl, D. L., & Fairbanks, D. J. (2007). Mud sticks: on the alleged falsification of Mendel's data. Genetics, 175(3), 975–979. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/175.3.975
Orel, V., & Hartl, D. L. (1994). Controversies in the Interpretation of Mendel’s Discovery. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 16(3), 423–464. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23331700
Hartl, D. L., & Orel, V. (1992). What did Gregor Mendel think he discovered? Genetics, 131(2), 245–253. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/131.2.245
The Mendel Memorial Medal is a unique annual award given to an internationally recognized figure for his or her contribution to the scientific and cultural legacy of Gregor Mendel and genetics. Past recipients of this award have included Nobel prize winners, outstanding researchers, pioneers in genetics, molecular biology, and the history of biology and genetics, as well as other eminent scientists. Last year saw the thirtieth anniversary of the start of the award. Its origin, however, goes back much deeper and is firmly linked to the tradition of developing Mendel’s scientific legacy at the Mendelianum of the Moravian Museum in Brno.