On November 1, 2008 (October 4, 2008 in the lunar calendar), Tan Jiazhen, founder of modern genetics in China, passed away. Tan Jiazhen was teaching. On November 1, 2008, Tan Jiazhen, an international geneticist and founder of modern genetics in China, passed away. Tan Jiazhen (1909 - 2008), a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, is an internationally renowned geneticist, one of the founders of modern genetics in China, and an outstanding scientist and educator. After the founding of New China, he established China's first genetics major at Fudan University, created the first genetics institute, established the first life sciences school, and served as deputy editor-in-chief of China's ultra-large comprehensive dictionary "Da Cihai." Mr. Tan Jiazhen has been engaged in teaching and research in genetics for seventy years. He has taught general biology, vertebrate comparative anatomy, embryology, genetics, cytology, experimental chemistry, cytogenetics, Darwinism, radiation genetics, protozoology and other courses. He has published more than 100 research papers and academic discussions, mainly collected in "Selected Papers of Tan Jiazhen"(1987, Science Press) and "Selected Works of Tan Jiazhen"(1992, Zhejiang Science and Technology Press). His research work mainly involves cellular inheritance, population inheritance, radiation inheritance, toxicological inheritance, molecular inheritance and genetic engineering of ladybugs, fruit flies, macaques, human beings, plants, etc. In particular, it has made groundbreaking achievements in the fields of evolution among fruit fly populations and genetic variation of ladybug axyridis spots, providing important arguments for laying a modern comprehensive evolutionary theory. He discovered the mosaic dominance of the inheritance of ladybug spots. It has aroused great repercussions from the international genetics community and is considered to be a major contribution to the development of classical genetics. Mr. Tan Jiazhen adhered to scientific truth and devoted his life to the cause of genetics. He cultivated a large number of outstanding talents for genetic research; established China's first genetics major, created the first genetics institute, and established the first life sciences academy.