Stent, Gunther S. (Gunther Siegmund), 1924-2008

Professor of Biochemistry, University of California, Berkeley. Born in Treptow, Germany in 1924.

From the description of Gunther S. Stent papers, 1915-2007. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 214937809

Biographical Note

Gunther S. Stent was born in 1924 in Treptow, a suburb of Berlin, where his father owned one of the largest bronze statuary and light-fixture factories in Germany. After the Kristallnacht, he escaped from Germany, traveling first to England, and then to the United States. He graduated in 1942 from Hyde Park High School in Chicago. He received a B.S. in 1945, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1948, both from the University of Illinois. He joined the University of California, Berkeley faculty as an Assistant Research Biochemist in 1953.

His scientific career was influenced by Max Delbrück, a quantum physicist who had trained with Neils Bohr. Delbrück was one of several physicists who had crossed over into biology in hopes of discovering new laws of physics and chemistry. Stent joined Delbrück's laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in 1948 as a Merck Fellow. He became an enthusiastic member of what became known as the Phage Group, whose members pioneered the study of bacterial genetics and a new understanding of fundamental biological processes. In 1950-1951, he worked at the University of Copenhagen and the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he collaborated with other ground-breaking scientists of his generation, many of whom later became Nobel Laureates.

Stent's book, Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology (1966, 1992), chronicles the 30-year period prior to the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953. Stent himself has made significant contributions in three areas: molecular biology, neurobiology, and the history and philosophy of science. Among his writings on molecular biology, his textbook Molecular Genetics: An Introductory Narrative (1970, 1978), is regarded as a classic. As a neurobiologist, he published over 100 articles on leech neurophysiology and neuroanatomy, and edited Function and Formation of Neural Systems (1977), and The Neurobiology of the Leech (1981). Stent's writings in the history and philosophy of science, which attracted both a professional and popular readership, include "What they are saying about Honest Jim" (1968), an essay inspired by James D. Watson's publication of The Double Helix ; and the widely discussed "Prematurity and Uniqueness in Scientific Discovery" (1972), among others.

With James D. Watson, Stent edited A Critical Edition of the Double Helix (1980), which appended a variety of articles and reviews by his colleagues that discussed Watson's controversial account of his discovery. Stent dedicated several books to his mentor, Max Delbrück, including The Molecular Biology of Bacterial Viruses (1963), and Mind from Matter : An Evolutionary Epistemology (1986) . The latter, which Stent edited and published after Delbrück's death in 1981, is a collection of his lectures delivered at the California Institute of Technology. In 1998, Stent published an autobiographical memoir entitled Nazis, Women and Molecular Biology, which centers on his early years in the United States and his return to post-war Germany in 1946-1947.

During Stent's long tenure at the University of California, Berkeley, he played an instrumental role in the process of shaping and developing new departments and programs, leading to the establishment of the Department of Virology in 1957, and the Department of Molecular Biology in 1963. From 1980 to 1986, he was the Director of the Virus Laboratory and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology. From 1987-1992, he served as founding Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. While at Berkeley, he mentored several generations of molecular biologists and neurobiologists.

Biographical Timeline

• 1924: Born March 24, Berlin, Germany
• 1940: Arrives in United States
• 1945: B.S., University of Illinois
• 1946 - 1947 : Document Analyst, Field Information Agency, Technical (Office of Military Government for Germany [U.S.])
• 1948: Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, University of Illinois
• 1948 - 1950 : National Research Council, Merck Fellow at California Institute of Technology
• 1950 - 1952 : National Research Council and American Cancer Society Fellow at the University of Copenhagen and at the Pasteur Institute, Paris
• 1951: Marries Inga Loftsdottir
• 1952: Joins staff of Wendell M. Stanley's Virus Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, as Assistant Research Biochemist
• ca. 1953: Joins Graduate Group in Microbiology
• 1956: Promoted to Associate Professor of Bacteriology
• 1958: Joins Graduate Group in Genetics
• 1959: Promoted to Professor of Molecular Biology
• 1959 - 1964 : Member of Genetics Study Section, National Institutes of Health
• 1960 - 1961 : National Science Foundation, Senior Fellow at Virus Research Institute, Kyoto University and at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University
• 1963: Publishes The Molecular Biology of Bacterial Viruses
• 1966: Chairman of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Neurobiology Publishes Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology, with James D. Watson and John Cairns, in honor of Max Delbrück's 60th birthday
• 1966: Appointed external member of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany
• 1968: Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1969 - 1970 : Guggenheim Fellow at Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
• 1969: Publishes The Coming of the Golden Age: A View of the End of Progress
• 1970: Publishes textbook, Molecular Genetics, An Introductory Narrative
• 1972: Chairman of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Neurobiology
• 1975 - 1993 : Member of Basic Research Advisory Committee, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation
• 1977: Publishes Paradoxes of Progress Publishes A Critical Edition of J. D. Watson's The Double Helix
• 1980 - 1986 : Chairman of Molecular Biology and Director of the Virus Laboratory
• 1981: Publishes Neurobiology of the Leech, co-edited with K. J. Muller and J. C. Nicholls Publishes Shinri to Satori; Kagaku no Keiji-Jogaku to Toyo (Truth and Spiritual Awakening; Metaphysics of Science and Oriental Philosophy)
• 1981 - 1983 : Chairman of Joint UCB-UCSF Governing Board, Health and Medical Sciences Program
• 1982: Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences
• 1982 - 1985 : Member of Committee on Space Biology and Medicine, Space Sciences Board
• 1984: Elected member of the American Philosophical Society
• 1985 - 1989 : Advisory Board, Dahlem Konferenzen, Berlin
• 1985 - 1990 : Fellow of Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
• 1986: Co-chair of University of California, Berkeley-University of California, San Francisco Joint Medical Program
• 1986 - 1989 : Chair, Neurobiology Section of the National Academy of Sciences
• 1987 - 1992 : Founding Chair, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
• 1989 - 1996 : Features Editor, Journal of Neuroscience
• 1990 - 1991 : Fogarty Scholar-in-Residence, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
• 1994: Professor Emeritus of Neurobiology and Professor in the Graduate School
• 1998: Publishes autobiographical memoir, Nazis, Women and Molecular Biology

From the guide to the Gunther S. Stent Papers, 1915-1998, (The Bancroft Library.)