Sewall Green Wright was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory and also for his work on path analysis. He was a founder of population genetics alongside Ronald Fisher and J.B.S. Haldane, which was a major step in the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis combining genetics with evolution. He discovered the inbreeding coefficient and methods of computing it in pedigree animals. Sewall Wright was born on December 16, 1889 in Melrose, Massachusetts to Philip Green Wright and Elizabeth Quincy Sewall Wright. Wright received his Ph.D. from Harvard University In 1966 he was awarded the National Medal of Science.