Jay Laurence Lush was a pioneering animal geneticist who made important contributions to livestock breeding. He is sometimes known as the father of modern scientific animal breeding. Lush received National Medal of Science in 1968 and the Wolf Prize in 1979. He was born on January 3,1896 in Shambaugh, Iowa. Lush was introduced to mathematics and genetics during his B.Sc. studies of animal husbandry at the Kansas State Agricultural College. He completed his M.Sc. in 1918 at Kansas State, and his Ph.D. in genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1922). Lush advocated breeding not based on subjective appearance of the animal, but on quantitative statistics and genetic information. Lush authored a classic book 'Animal Breeding Plans' in 1937 which greatly influenced animal breeding around the world. He died on May 22, 1982 (aged 86).