Fran Jesenko

Fran Jesenko (1875 to 1932) was a Slovenian botanist and plant geneticist who became notable for his work on the hybridisation of wheat and rye. After attending high school in Ljubljana he enrolled at the University of Vienna and graduated in 1902, and during his studies he became a tutor to two Oriental princes at Vienna's Teresianum college for boys. The position gave him the chance to travel across Europe and to Egypt, where he studied desert flora. In 1909 he became a research assistant under Erich von Tschermak at the College of Agriculture in Vienna and in 1913 a lecturer. Under von Tschermak's supervision he began studies on plant hybridisation, obtaining fertile hybrids between varieties of wheat and rye by backcrossing and studying their characteristics with reference to Mendelian principles.