death_date death_place birth_place nationality field birth_date known_for prizes image article_title name
29 march 1997 brookline , massachusetts chicago , illinois united states genetics february 7 , 1918 pioneering cytoplasmic genetics gilbert morgan smith medal -lrb- 1988 -rrb- ruth sager.jpg ruth sager
 ruth sager
ruth sager

ruth sager -lrb- february 7 , 1918 -- march 29 , 1997 -rrb- was an american geneticist .
sager enjoyed two scientific careers .
her first was in the 1950s and 1960s when she pioneered the field of cytoplasmic genetics by discovering transmission of genetic traits through chloroplast dna , the first known example of genetics not involving the cell nucleus .
the academic community did not acknowledge the significance of her contribution until after the second wave of feminism in the 1970s .
her second career began in the early 1970s and was in cancer genetics ; she proposed and investigated the roles of tumor suppressor genes .
