Jerry Hirsch
{{short description|American psychologist and behavior geneticist}}
{{Infobox scientist
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| name = Jerry Hirsch
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| birth_date = {{birth date |1922|09|20}}
| birth_place = Manhattan, New York City, New York
| death_date = {{death date and age |2008|05|03 |1922|09|20}}
| death_place = Urbana, Illinois
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| nationality = American
| fields = Behavior genetics
| workplaces = Columbia University
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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| alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley
| thesis_title = The determinants of learning without awareness
| thesis_url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100650018
| thesis_year = 1955
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| notable_students = Tim Tully
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| awards = 2006 Dobzhansky Award from the Behavior Genetics Association
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Jerome Edwin Hirsch (September 20, 1922 – May 3, 2008) was an American psychologist known for his pioneering work in behavior genetics, and for his advocacy for social justice.{{Cite web |url=http://grad.mnsu.edu/research/frontiers/fall2009/article_examiningGroupBehavior.html |title=Examining Group Behavior on the Fly |date=2009 |website=Frontiers Magazine |language=en |access-date=2017-09-07}}{{Cite web |url=http://ferris-pages.org/ISAR/hirsch.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907165905/http://ferris-pages.org/ISAR/hirsch.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=September 7, 2017 |title=Jerry Hirsch (1922-2008) |website=Institute for the Study of Academic Racism |access-date=2017-09-07}}{{Cite journal |last1=Wahlsten |first1=D. |last2=McGuire |first2=T. R. |date=2008-11-01 |title=Obituary |journal=Genes, Brain and Behavior |language=en |volume=7 |issue=8 |pages=833–835 |doi=10.1111/j.1601-183X.2008.00437.x |issn=1601-183X|doi-access=free }} He has been described as "the pioneer who brought quantitative genetic analysis to the study of behavior."
Biography
He was born on September 20, 1922, in Manhattan, New York City.
Hirsch began his interest in behavior genetics in the 1950s, as a student at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied under Edward C. Tolman and Robert Tryon.{{Cite journal |last=Tully |first=Tim |date=1996-11-26 |title=Discovery of genes involved with learning and memory: An experimental synthesis of Hirschian and Benzerian perspectives |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=93 |issue=24 |pages=13460–13467 |issn=0027-8424 |pmid=8942957|pmc=33631 |doi=10.1073/pnas.93.24.13460|bibcode=1996PNAS...9313460T |doi-access=free }} From 1956 to 1960, he was an assistant professor at Columbia University, where he worked alongside Theodosius Dobzhansky. He later conducted multiple influential studies on the genetic origins of behaviors in Drosophila melanogaster, Dobzhansky's favorite species.{{Cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jun-03-sci-fly3-story.html |title=Fly Trials of 1950s Evolve |last=Mestel |first=Rosie |date=2002-06-03 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=2017-09-07 |language=en-US |issn=0458-3035}} He subsequently continued this research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,{{Cite journal |last=Greenspan |first=Ralph J. |date=2008-03-11 |title=The origins of behavioral genetics |journal=Current Biology |volume=18 |issue=5 |pages=R192–R198 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2008.01.015|pmid=18334190 |s2cid=16125328 |doi-access=free }} where he became an associate professor of psychology and zoology in 1960. He became a full professor of psychology there in 1963, of zoology in 1966, and of ecology, ethology, and evolution in 1976. On March 30, 1970, he hosted the founding meeting of the Behavior Genetics Association at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.{{Cite journal |date=June 1970 |title=Founding of the behavior genetics association |journal=Social Biology |language=en |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=147–148 |doi=10.1080/19485565.1970.9987863 |issn=0037-766X}} He was the editor-in-chief of Animal Behaviour from 1968 to 1972 and of the Journal of Comparative Psychology from 1983 to 1988.{{Cite journal |last=Roubertoux |first=Pierre L. |date=2008-10-05 |title=Jerry Hirsch (20 September 1922–3 May 2008): A Tribute |journal=Behavior Genetics |language=en |volume=38 |issue=6 |pages=561–564 |doi=10.1007/s10519-008-9231-2 |pmid=18836858 |s2cid=45682729 |issn=0001-8244}} He retired from the University of Illinois in 1993, and remained an active emeritus professor there until 2004.{{Cite web |url=http://ferris-pages.org/ISAR/hirschvita.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909190439/http://ferris-pages.org/ISAR/hirschvita.pdf |url-status=usurped |archive-date=September 9, 2017 |title=Jerry Hirsch CV}}
He died on May 3, 2008, at his home in Urbana, Illinois.
=Criticism of hereditarians=
Hirsch was an early and vocal critic of the work of Arthur Jensen, who argued that group differences in educational ability were heritable. Hirsch argued that Jensen's work was a misuse and misrepresentation of behavior genetics{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9bHBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |title=Misbehaving Science: Controversy and the Development of Behavior Genetics |last=Panofsky |first=Aaron |date=2014-07-07 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226058597 |pages=80 |language=en}} and that Jensen's "avowed goals" were "as heinously barbaric as were Hitler's and the anti-abolitionists".{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jmVQDwAAQBAJ |title=The New Know-nothings: The Political Foes of the Scientific Study of Human Nature |last=Hunt |first=Morton |date=2017-09-29 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781351478632 |pages=73–74 |language=en}} In the mid-1960s, William Shockley tried to convince Hirsch to support his views on the heritability of racial differences in IQ. This attempt was unsuccessful, and Hirsch subsequently called the nature-nurture debate a "pseudo-question".{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OBsHSzmkYHkC&pg=PA195 |title=The Science and Politics of Racial Research |last=Tucker |first=William H. |date=1996 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252065606 |pages=195 |language=en}}
References
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Category:Scientists from New York City
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty