Grüneberg, Professor Hans

Correspondence with colleagues and friends, organisations and institutions, and on assorted administrative matters, 1922-1982. Gruneberg was in contact with most of the distinguished names in genetics and allied fields of his day, and had significant international contacts, especially in North America and Asia.

The letters were kept in one continuous alphabetical sequence. The original filing was fairly methodical - a number of misplaced items were refiled but any idiosyncratic practices which were Gruneberg's own (filing individual under institution, or vice versa) have been retained, and should be rendered unproblematic within a searchable catalogue. In one or two cases a tranche of material on a particular issue was removed to its own file: e.g. Jewish organisations, Gruneberg's involvement with Malaysian academic institutions as external examiner in genetics.

Hans Grüneberg was born in Germany to a Jewish family and studied medicine in Bonn and biology in Berlin. At the invitation of J B S Haldane, he moved to London in 1933 to work as a research assistant at University College London (UCL), having lost his hospital post in Germany as a Jew. He joined a team on which R A Fisher and M J D White were already working on genetics. Grüneberg established the subject of development genetics, along with C H Waddington. He studied the pathological processes in mutant mice, and formulated a "pedigree of causes" of genes, which was an important model for human disease. He also did work on snails and radiation-induced mutation. He was additionally involved in the design of syllabi in genetics for medical students and examined in the subject in several institutions.

Born 26 May 1907 in Elberfeld, Germany (later Wuppertal), son of Dr Levi Grunberg and his wife Else, nee Steinberg
As a boy, very involved with the local Natural History Society, published his first paper (on Devonian fossils) in its yearbook at the age of 17 in 1925
1926-1928 studied medicine at Bonn and Freiburg
1928-1929 studies for PhD in genetics in Berlin under Nachtsheim
1930 married Elsbeth Capell (d. 1944) 1931 obtained the MD in Bonn, and began work at the Municipal Hospital, Elberfeld (until the advent of the Nazis)
1933 invited by J B S Haldane to come to England to work at University College London, and arrives there on 12 Aug
1933-1938 works in Haldane's department, supported by the Academic Assistance Council and then the Rockefeller Foundation
1938-1942 Moseley Research Student of the Royal Society
1942 volunteered for military service, joined the RAMC, served in the Directorate of Biological Research working on ballistics, blood supply, and as a pathologist
1943 Genetics of the Mouse (revised 1952)
1946 returned to UCL as Reader in Genetics
1946 married Hannah Blumenfield (d. 1962) 1947 Animal Genetics and Medicine
1956-1974 Professor of Genetics, UCL
1956 elected FRS
1974 retired as Emeritus Professor
23 Oct 1982 died

Further information can be found in the entry for him in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1984, Vol 30, pp. 226-247, and obituary in The Times, Oct 27, 1982, p. 12

In other repositories:

Department of Genetics and Biometry, University College London, retained a set of his published papers.

Hubrecht Laboratory, Holland, has some of his papers covering his research on embryos.

His collections of skeletons and shells (with related material) are in the Mammal Section and Mollusc Section respectively of the British Museum (Natural History).