Member SpotlightsA Scientific Legacy: Fundamental Pursuits that Enabled Future Discoveries Joshua Lederberg, Ph.D.  Joshua Lederberg, Ph.D. approaches research today with the same ferocious and unbounded imagination tempered by critical examination that he employed during his early training at Columbia and Yale Universities. This remarkable combination of creativity and analysis were instrumental in his discovery, in conjunction with Edward Tatum, that bacteria exchange genetic material through sexual recombination. In 1958 (at the age of 33 ), he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his "discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria." He shared the prize with George W. Beadle and Tatum, Their prize was "for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events". Currently, Dr. Lederberg is Professor Emeritus, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Informatics at Rockefeller University (New York). In addition to maintaining an active research program on the limits to rate of growth of bacteria, he also lectures and serves on a number of advisory panels on global health policy, biological warfare and the threat of bioterrorism. After his work with Tatum, Dr. Lederberg elected to leave medical school to earn a Ph.D. from Yale University. Upon completion of his graduate studies, Dr. Lederberg joined the Genetics Department at the University of Wisconsin, which was originally part of the University's School of Agriculture. During his tenure there, he helped form and then served as chair of the Department of Medical Genetics. Just before receiving the Nobel Prize, Dr. Lederberg was invited to join the new Department of Genetics at Stanford University's School of Medicine. In 1978, he was appointed President of Rockefeller University and later became professor emeritus in 1990. Dr. Lederberg's scientific contributions also include his discovery along with Norton D. Zinder of transduction (a virus-mediated form of bacterial genetic recombination); coining the term plasmid to denote extra-chromosomal genetic material; and the technique of replica plating. These discoveries were influential in making bacteria a fundamental tool for genetics research and paved the way for the advent of recombinant DNA technology. Dr. Lederberg has been involved in artificial intelligence research and in the NASA experimental programs seeking life on Mars. He has also been a consultant on health-related matters for government and the international community including WHO's Advisory Health Research Council. In 1998, he received the US National Medal of Science in 1989, where his consultative role was specifically recognized. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1957, and a charter member of its Institute of Medicine, has served as Chairman of the President's Cancer Panel, and of the Congress' Technology Assessment Advisory Council. In all of his endeavors, Dr. Lederberg has devoted himself to enhancing human's understanding of nature. He still finds it thrilling to mentor young scientists, citing enjoyment of the dialectic that results from a close relationship between two inquiring minds. He professes a sense of pride in seeing his students grow and prosper as researchers in their own right. ### << Previous Next >> [ View All Member Spotlights ] |
|
