Benjamin Charles Gruenberg

Gruenberg was born in Novoselytsia, Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire (now in Ukraine), and after his Jewish parents emigrated to the US he received his BS from the University of Minnesota in 1896.

In 1908 Gruenberg received a master's degree in genetics from Columbia University after which he taught biology at Commercial High School.

In 1911 he received a PhD from Columbia University under Thomas Hunt Morgan after which he taught at Julia Richman High School.

He wrote a textbook of biology in 1919 in which he removed the traditional separation of botany and zoology and focused on social applications.

[2] Clarence Darrow, an attorney in the Scopes trial in 1925 requested Gruenberg to attend as an expert witness but he was advised by an editor of a textbook that was under preparation to not to get involved.