The Resume

(December 21, 1890-April 5, 1967)
Born in New York City, New York
Geneticist
Demonstrated that radiation can cause genetic mutations
Won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1946)
Second cousin of science fiction author Ursula Le Guin

Why he might be annoying:

He suffered a nervous breakdown when his first marriage broke up.
He attempted suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills (1932).
He was a eugenics proponent who inspired the creation of the Repository for Germinal Choice (aka the ‘Nobel Prize Sperm Bank’).
He moved to the Soviet Union (1933), partly because of his own socialist beliefs and partly because he thought the USSR might be open to practicing eugenics on a national scale.

Why he might not be annoying:

He criticized the use of eugenic arguments to support racism and xenophobia.
He left the Soviet Union (1937), disillusioned by both Stalin’s political repression and the promotion of the pseudoscientific ideas of Trofim Lysenko.
He had a falling out with Nobel Sperm Bank founder Robert Klark Graham, who he felt was too obsessed with IQ, while Muller wanted to also select for traits like altruism.
He was outspoken on the dangers of radiation from atomic weapon tests and one of several scientists to sign Linus Pauling’s petition to ban above-ground tests.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• Born Half-Jewish
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 62]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [December] (Ranked: 12211890)
• Eugenics Supporters
• Guggenheim Fellowship Grant Recipients
• I am a Unitarian
• I am an Atheist
• I Attempted Suicide and Screwed it Up
• I Attended Columbia
• I Died in 1967 (Ranked: 76)
• I Earned a Doctorate
• I Had a Nervous Breakdown
• Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (Ranked: 1946)
• Profiles 38001-38250 (Ranked: 38220)
• We Died on the Same Day (Ranked: 19670405)

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying