e.b. ford was the first geneticist to begin work in this field of study. e.b. ford worked mostly during the 1950s and is most noted for his work with "maniola jurtina" and published a book entitled "ecological genetics" in 1975. this type of evolutionary biological study was only possible after gel electrophoresis had been designed in 1937. prior to this, a high throughput method for dna analysis did not exist. this field of study began to become more popular following the 1980s with the development of polymerase chain reaction (pcr 1985) and poly-acrylamide gel electrophoresis (p. 1967). with this technology, segments of dna could be sequenced, amplified, and proteins produced using bacterial transformations. the genetic material along with the proteins could be analyzed and more correct phylogenetic trees could be created.