Douglas Scott Falconer


Douglas Scott Falconer was a Scottish geneticist known for his work in quantitative genetics. Falconer's book Introduction to quantitative genetics was written in 1960 and became a valuable reference for generations of scientists. Its latest edition dates back to 1996 and is coauthored by Trudy Mackay.
In 1951, Falconer described a novel mouse mutant that he called reeler for its peculiar gait. Later research using these mice has led to the discovery of reelin, a protein playing important roles in corticogenesis, neuronal migration, and plasticity.
In 1964, he introduced the use of liability threshold models into human disease & trait modeling.
In 1973, he was announced as a Fellow of the Royal Society.