Campus News

Historical Marker Dedication Locale Changes

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 11, 2011) — The University of Kentucky's 17th annual historical marker ceremony will still take place at 1:30 p.m. today, but the location has changed, due to the threat of severe weather this afternoon.

The location of this afternoon’s historical marker dedication has been changed to the Lexmark Public Room in the Main Building.

Faculty, staff, students, UK alumni and members of the Lexington community are invited to attend.

With the help of the Kentucky Historical Society and President Lee T. Todd Jr., the Student Development Council will dedicate this year's historical marker to UK biology alum Thomas Hunt Morgan in a public ceremony on campus. 

Born in Lexington in 1866, Thomas Hunt Morgan was a nephew of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan. Thomas Hunt Morgan attended State College of Kentucky, which became UK, during the 1880s, graduating as valedictorian in 1886 with a bachelor's degree in science and in 1888 with a master's degree. 


 

After earning a doctorate from Johns Hopkins in 1890, the pioneering geneticist discovered the basic mechanisms of heredity and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933. 

In 1966, UK named the new Thomas Hunt Morgan School of Biological Sciences for him. 

SDC and the Kentucky Historical Society will recognize Morgan's contribution to biology with a historical marker placed outside the entrance of the school named in his honor. This topic was chosen by the Class of 2010 and funded through the gifts of graduating UK students. 

Each year, the SDC solicits graduating students to make their first gift to their alma mater. Funds raised during this effort are used to purchase a Kentucky historical marker inscribed with that class's graduating year. 

MEDIA CONTACT: Erin Holaday Ziegler, (859) 257-1754, ext. 252; erin.holaday@uky.edu