Michael R. Cummings is the author or co-author of a number of widely used college textbooks, including HUMAN HEREDITY: PRINCIPLES AND ISSUES, CONCEPTS OF GENETICS, and ESSENTIALS OF GENETICS. He also has written sections on genetics for the MCGRAW-HILL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY and has published a newsletter on advances in human genetics for instructors and students. He received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Northwestern University. His doctoral work, conducted in the laboratory of Dr. R.C. King, centered on ovarian development in Drosophila melanogaster. At the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he taught for more than 25 years, his research interests involved the role of the short arm/centromere region of human chromosome 21 aberrations. He now teaches at Illinois Institute of Technology. Dr. Cummings?s interest in scientific literacy prompted him to organize a course in human genetics for nonmajors. He still teaches this course at present, in addition to genetics for biology majors and general biology.
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