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 Lederberg
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"Has
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|
NLM Exhibit Features Nobelist Joshua Lederberg
Displayed Items Include Nobel Medal and Artifacts from a Rich
Scientific Career
Dr. Joshua Lederberg, who won a Nobel Prize at 33, always knew he
wanted to be a scientist. At age seven he succinctly expressed this
desire in a short essay in smudged blue ink on school-lined paper:
"I would like to be a scientist of mathematics like Einstein. I
would study science and discover a few theories of science."
This piece of early writing can be seen at a small exhibit at the
National Library of Medicine on the life and work of Joshua
Lederberg. The exhibit coincides with his 75th birthday. Other items
on display include pages from a lab notebook, Lederberg's high
school microscope, his Nobel medal and diploma, letters, newspaper
clippings, and photographs.
The exhibit will be up through November 30. Although Lederberg
chose the biological sciences over mathematics, he never wavered in
his commitment or desire to be a scientist. During World War II he
wrote to a friend, "...the laboratory is more than just a dull place
where you wash test tubes. There, and not on the dance floor, drill
field, or battleground I'm at my best."
The dance floor's loss was science's gain. Lederberg won the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958 for his research
showing that bacteria can reproduce through sexual recombination,
and that their genetic material can be manipulated by bacterial
viruses. After winning the Nobel Prize, Lederberg became an
increasingly public scientist, as the documents in the exhibit show.
A letter from President John F. Kennedy thanks Lederberg for his
participation on Kennedy's White House transition team. Lederberg
also wrote over 200 editorials on bioethics, environmental hazards,
emerging infectious diseases, and biological warfare.
Dr. Walter Hickel, the HMD historian who curated the exhibit,
says, "in combining pioneering research in genetics and computer
science with political commitment in areas like environmental
protection and arms control, Lederberg has bridged the gap between
science and society."
NLM Director Dr. Donald A.B. Lindberg stated, "Joshua Lederberg
is a seminal figure in the world of molecular biology and he has
deservedly earned the sobriquet, 'father of molecular genetics.'"
Dr. Lederberg, who is a Sackler Foundation Scholar at The
Rockefeller University in New York City, was appointed to a
four-year term on the National Library of Medicine's Board of
Regents in 1998. He chairs the Board's Research and Development
Subcommittee.
As announced last year, an electronic version of many of
Lederberg's papers is featured in Profiles in Science, (http://www.profiles.nlm.nih.gov/),
the Library's web site devoted to great biomedical scientists in the
20th century. There you will find some 3,000 documents, including
notebooks, manuscripts, personal correspondence with other
scientists, diary entries, newspaper clippings, video interviews,
and photographs. New images are added regularly to this site. Other
scientists represented in Profiles in Science are Oswald T. Avery,
Julius Axelrod, and Martin Rodbell. 
Dr. Joshua Lederberg in his University of Wisconsin laboratory
in the fall of 1958. |
