Bill Hill (geneticist) facts for kids

William George Hill (born August 7, 1940 – died December 17, 2021) was a smart English scientist. He was a geneticist, someone who studies how traits are passed down through families. He was also a statistician, which means he used math to understand data. Hill was a professor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He is famous for helping discover something called the Hill–Robertson effect with his teacher, Alan Robertson. This effect explains how natural selection works in small groups of living things.

Learning and School

William Hill went to St Albans School, Hertfordshire when he was younger. Later, he studied agriculture at Wye College, which is part of the University of London. He earned his first degree, a Bachelor of Science, in 1961.

He then went to the University of California, Davis to study genetics. In 1963, he received his Master of Science degree there. After that, he moved to Edinburgh, Scotland. He worked on his PhD, a higher degree, in population genetics with his advisor, Alan Robertson. His PhD project was about "Studies on artificial selection", which is how humans choose certain traits in plants or animals to breed. In 1976, he earned another special degree, a Doctor of Science, for his work on quantitative genetics. This field looks at traits that can be measured, like height or weight.

His Scientific Work

Professor Hill was known for his important ideas in population genetics and quantitative genetics. These fields study how genes change in groups of living things over time. He was especially interested in how genes behave in smaller groups.

He was the first to create formulas to understand how linked genes (genes located close together on a chromosome) are passed down. He also showed how to figure out these links from the genetic information of individuals.

Hill made big contributions to understanding how traits that vary, like how much milk a cow produces, are passed on in groups of animals that breed randomly. He helped design and understand experiments where scientists tried to select for certain traits. He also studied how similar relatives are because of their shared genes. He used these ideas in his own lab experiments and to help improve farm animals.

From 2005 to 2009, Professor Hill was the main editor for a science magazine called Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Awards and Special Honours

William Hill received many awards for his important work:

• In 1979, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. This is a special honour for top scientists in Scotland.
• In 1985, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is one of the oldest and most respected science awards in the world.
• In 2004, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). This is an honour given by the King or Queen of the United Kingdom for important contributions.
• In 2018, he received the Darwin Medal from The Royal Society. This award recognized his research in quantitative genetics.
• In 2019, he was given the Mendel Medal by The Genetics Society. This award celebrated his big impact on the field of quantitative genetics.