Morris Soller

Soller was born in Manhattan, New York City in 1931.^[1][2] At the age of 12 he was first inspired to learn about genetics by reading The Theory of the Gene by Thomas Hunt Morgan.^{[3][1][4]: ix} While an undergraduate he read Jay Laurence Lush's Animal Breeding Plans and learned much from it^[1][3] – and would receive the award named for Lush 50 years later – see below.^[3] Soller also learned much from the writings of Ronald Fisher and Sewall Wright during this time.^[1] In 1951 he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture and then in 1956 both a Master's Degree in Applied Statistics and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Animal Breeding from Rutgers University.^[2][3][1] He would later return to his birth country for further postdoctoral education at Indiana University and Roosevelt University in biochemistry.^[2]

In 1957 he was hired by the Volcani Center as their senior scientist for animal breeding and by Bar-Ilan University as a senior lecturer of Biology and Genetics.^[2] He moved his family to Israel where they have lived most of their lives since.^[2] Between 1966 and 1972 Soller was a lecturer at Roosevelt University in the USA.^[2] In 1972 he returned to Israel to lecture at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the Department of Genetics.^[2] He would eventually become a full professor and emeritus professor in 2000.^[2] He has since continued actively in lecturing and research including sabbaticals as the Cotswold Visiting Scientist at Iowa State University, at the University of Illinois and elsewhere.^[2]

Soller is the originator of quantitative trait locus mapping and marker-assisted selection.^[2][3] He began noticing the statistical patterns and composing the mathematical tools that would be required for these techniques in 1974, while studying crop genetics and livestock genetics.^[2] He went on to collaborate with his students and peers to create the F2,^[2] backcrossing,^[2] full sib,^[2] half sib,^[2] granddaughter,^[2][3] AIL^[2] and selective DNA pooling^[2][3] techniques in QTL mapping.^[2] Along with other laboratories around the world, his group developed some of the earliest restriction fragment length polymorphism markers for cattle and microsatellite markers for chickens.^[3]

He has especially become known for using these techniques to analyse trypanotolerance in cattle, especially in the N'Dama breed.^[2][1] Soller has also applied QTL analysis to dairy traits and Marek's disease.^[2][1]

• 1996 – American Association for the Advancement of Science elected him a Fellow^[2]
• 1999 – Awarded the Jay L. Lush Award by the American Dairy Science Association^[2][3]
• 2000 – Chosen to give the A. B. Chapman Lecture of the University of Wisconsin^[2][3]
• 2000 – Honorary doctorate from Iowa State University^[2][3] "for leading the way in the actual

discovery of genetic science"^[5]: 119

• 2007 – Honorary doctorate from the University of Liege, Belgium^[2][3]
• 2012 – Honorary member of the International Society for Animal Genetics^[6]
• 2012 – The journal Animal Genetics published a special issue in his honor.^[3]

As of 2012^[update] Soller had authored and coauthored over 170 peer reviewed publications, and many book chapters and encyclopedia articles.^[2][3] The organisms he has studied include cattle and chickens, but also extend to plants, viruses, mice, pigs and others.^[3]

• Kemp, Stephen J.; Iraqi, Fuad; Darvasi, Ariel; Soller, Morris; Teale, Alan J. (1997). "Localization of genes controlling resistance to trypanosomiasis in mice". Nature Genetics. 16 (2). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 194–196. doi:10.1038/ng0697-194. ISSN 1061-4036. PMID 9171834. S2CID 19998760. Localization of genes controlling resistance to trypanosomiasis in mice (Q58843113).

—Popularly cited including by^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

• Soller, Morris (2015-02-16). "If a Bull Were a Cow, How Much Milk Would He Give?". Annual Review of Animal Biosciences. 3 (1). Annual Reviews: 1–17. doi:10.1146/annurev-animal-022114-110751. ISSN 2165-8102. PMID 25493539. S2CID 46733451.

— An autobiography Soller was invited to write by Annual Reviews