William Martin Gelbart

William Martin Gelbart (September 11, 1945 – August 11, 2015) was an American geneticist and a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard University. He was best known for his work with fly genetics, the discovery of decapentaplegic (dpp), and the formation of FlyBase. He was a member of the National Advisory Council for the Human Genome Project.

Early life and education Gelbart was born in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his B.S. in biology from Brooklyn College in 1966 after attending Harpur College at Binghamton University from 1962 to 1963. He received a PhD in genetics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1971 with Allen S. Fox. Gelbart was a major leader in consolidating the findings of the Drosophila community into FlyBase along with Michael Ashburner, Rachel Drysdale, Gerry Rubin, Thom Kaufman and Kathy Matthews.