Lederberg, Esther M.

Biographical/Historical Sketch

Esther Miriam Zimmer Lederberg, PhD, professor emeritus of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, earned her AB at Hunter College in 1942. She then came to Stanford to study genetics, earning her MA in 1946. She earned her PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1950. Among her achievements was the discovery of lambda phage, a virus that infects E. coli bacteria. Esther and Joshua Lederberg both joined the Stanford medical school faculty in 1959; they were divorced in 1966. In addition to her teaching duties, she directed the Plasmid Reference Center at Stanford medical school from 1976 to 1986. She was also the American Cancer Society Senior Dernham Fellow from 1968 to 1970. She died in 2006.

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