Herman Nilsson-Ehle

Nils Herman Nilsson-Ehle (12 February 1873 – 29 December 1949) was a Swedish plant breeder and geneticist. He was a professor at Lund University and was also a proponent of eugenics.

Nilsson-Ehle at work

Nilsson was born in Skurup and educated at the University of Lund and as a student he joined the 1898-99 Jonas Stadling expedition to Siberia. He then became a plant breeder at the Swedish plant breeding institute in Svalöv, which was established in 1886[1] under Hjalmar Nilsson, working there until 1915.[2] He attempted to induce mutations in seeds by sending them up high in the atmosphere in hot-air balloons in the hope that cosmic rays would alter their genes. He then became head of botany at the University of Lund followed by a position as professor of genetics at Akarp.[3] He noted polygenic trait inheritance.[4] He became interested in human genetic and helped found a State Institute of Race Biology in Uppsala in 1921 under Herman Lundborg which aimed to work on eugenics,[5] the improvement of the genetic quality of the people.[6] When Hitler came to power in German, both Lundborg and Nilsson-Ehle supported the idea of racial purity and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute founded in 1927 in Germany was modelled on the Swedish institution.[7]