Nationality British Occupation Grassland scientist Title Professor | Citizenship British Known for Scientist Died 1965 | |
Thomas James Jenkin (1885–1965) was professor of agriculture at University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and director of the Welsh Plant Breeding Station from 1942 to 1950.
Biography
Thomas James Jenkin was born in 1885 in Maenclochog, Pembrokeshire, Wales. He was Agricultural Officer for Brecon and Radnorshire from 1914 to 1915 and advisor in agricultural botany at the University College of North Wales, Bangor from 1915 to 1920. In 1919 he was appointed by Sir George Stapledon as grass breeder at the newly formed Welsh Plant Breeding Station in Aberystwyth. He was an early pioneer of grass breeding and genetics and made some of the earliest advances in hybridisation of grass species. He succeeded Stapledon as director of the WPBS in 1942, on the recommendation of J. B. S. Haldane. He retired as director in 1950 and died in 1965.