Marcus Morton Rhoades

Marcus Morton Rhoades (July 24, 1903 in Graham, Missouri – December 30, 1991) was an American cytogeneticist. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1927, a Master of Science degree in 1928 from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. degree in 1932 from Cornell University. His research on maize led to important discoveries for basic genetics and the applied science of plant breeding. He was one of the first cytogenecists to document the pre-meiotic pairing of homologous chromosomes in maize, otherwise referred as somatic pairing (Singh, 2003).

In 1907, Herbert J. Webber started the Synapsis Club, a student/faculty organization at Cornell University, Prof.Rollins A. Emerson continued and encouraged his student to become members, including Rhoades.