Otto Frankel facts for kids

Sir Otto Herzberg Frankel FRS FAA FRSNZ (born November 4, 1900, in Vienna; died November 21, 1998, in Canberra) was a famous geneticist. He was born in Austria but later became a citizen of New Zealand and Australia. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was one of the first people to warn the world about the dangers of losing too many different kinds of plants. This is called biodiversity loss.

Early Life and Family

Otto Herzberg-Frankel was the third of four sons. His father was a very successful lawyer in Vienna. Otto's grandfather, who was a well-known writer, added "Herzberg" to the family name. After his father passed away, Otto dropped the hyphen from his name.

Otto's oldest brother, Max, became an accountant in New Zealand. His brother Theo became a paper manufacturer in Great Britain. Paul, another brother, became an expert on the oil industry.

When Otto was young, he had a tutor and a French governess at home. From 1910 to 1918, he went to a classical school where he met Karl Popper. Otto felt that his school didn't teach much science or math, focusing more on old languages like Latin and Greek.

Frankel was married twice. His first wife was Mathilde Donsbach. Later, in 1939, he married Margaret Anderson. From 1929 to 1951, he worked at Lincoln College and lived in Christchurch. Otto and Margaret Frankel had a special house designed by the architect Ernst Plischke. This house, called Frankel House, is now a protected historical building.

University Education and Plant Studies

Otto finished school right when World War I ended. It was hard for young men who hadn't served in the military to get into the University of Vienna. But Otto and his friends took over an old military lab. They studied chemistry together and earned credit for the course.

Next, Otto went to the University of Munich from 1919 to 1920. He started studying chemistry, botany, and physics. After a while, he decided he liked more practical subjects, like agriculture, better than chemistry.

He then went to the Agricultural Institute of the University of Giessen. He didn't like his professor there, so he left after two semesters. His aunt encouraged him to go back to university and offered to support him.

In 1922, he joined the Agricultural University of Berlin. He got credit for his earlier studies and for working on his family's farm. There, he heard a lecture on plant genetics by Professor Erwin Baur. Otto was fascinated by Baur's idea that he could work with plant genes like a chemist works with molecules.

In 1923, Otto asked Baur if he could start research before finishing his diploma. His research looked at how different traits in plants are passed down together. He studied the common snapdragon, Antirrhinum majus. Otto found that most of the traits he studied were passed down independently. However, his detailed review of how traits are linked in plants earned him high praise. He received his doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1925.

Career Highlights

After university, Otto worked for two years as a plant breeder on a large farm near Bratislava.

Later, a person named Lewis Namier convinced Otto to move to Palestine. The idea was to help start a plant and animal breeding program there. Otto began his work by counting the chromosomes of the Jaffa orange. He didn't enjoy living in Palestine and soon moved to England.

In 1953, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very important honor for scientists.

Protecting Plant Life

Starting in 1964, Frankel became a key member of the International Biological Program (IBP). He focused on a very important issue: protecting the world's plant genetic resources. He and Erna Bennett even came up with the term "genetic resources" during a late-night meeting in 1967.

In this role, Otto led a group of experts for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. He helped organize many international meetings. He worked hard to make scientists, international groups, and the public aware of the problem of losing different kinds of plants.

In 1981, he co-wrote a book called 'Conservation and Evolution' with Michael E. Soulé. Later, in 1995, he also co-wrote 'The conservation of plant biodiversity' with Anthony H. D. Brown and Jeremy James Burdon. His work helped people understand why it's so important to protect the variety of life on Earth.