Muller was a
student of TH Morgan,
and his search for a more efficient way of generating
observable mutational changes led to the discovery of the mutagenic
properties of X-rays and other forms of ionizing
radiation. For this, he received the Nobel Prize in
1946. Muller held Marxist political views, and experienced
difficulties in his initial faculty positions at Rice
University in Houston and the University of Texas, Austin. He
lived and worked in the Soviet Union between 1932 ~ 1936,
before the increasingly anti-Mendelian influence of TD Lysenko made his
position untenable. In later years he spoke out against the
negative health effects of radiation and nuclear weapons
testing.