Joshua Lederberg papers, 1904-2008.

ArchivalResource

Lederberg, Joshua. Joshua Lederberg papers, 1904-2008.

Joshua Lederberg papers, 1904-2008.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/60551678

Correspondence, reports, research material, published writings, photographs, committee meeting minutes, and audiovisual material document the research and public service of Joshua Lederberg, 1958 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine "for his discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria". From the start of his career, Lederberg retained his records in a rudimentary organizational arrangement, with the hope they would be preserved for posterity. Many of the series and sub-series are interconnected. Correspondents and information about the many organizations Lederberg was involved with reappear throughout the collection. There is a large amount of correspondence of both a professional and personal nature; however, the collection does not contain a significant amount of biographical resources, such as correspondence between family members. Series IV: Research, Genetics sub-series contains Lederberg's original lab notebooks and class notes from his time at Yale University and his short stay at Columbia University as a graduate student. There are reprints, notes and correspondence in Series V: Writing, Published Writings (P Files) sub-series which pertain to Lederberg²s research results from his time at the Tatum lab. There are also unpublished manuscripts, in the Unpublished Manuscripts (Q Files) sub-series, prepared in collaboration with his first wife, Esther Lederberg, describing further experiments with E. coli. While at Stanford, Lederberg bedgan his involvement in private and government organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the National Academy of Sciences, President's (Kennedy) Panel on Mental Retardation, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the Center for the Advanced Study of Behavioral Science (CASBS) surpassed his research activities. Records from many of these organizations appear throughout the collection notably in Series II: Academic Career, Series III: Correspondence, Series IV: Research, and Series V: Writing. Series VI: Public Service is the main source of information on these activities. Lederberg developed his interest in space exploration in the late 1950s and early 1960s in reaction to the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite. He wanted to increase the scientific influence on this new field and prevent the politicization of space exploration. He served on many NASA committees and his interest would lead to the development of exobiology as a scientific discipline. The Exobiology sub-series in Series IV: Research documents this subject through correspondence, reports, articles, and meeting minutes. Computer science was another new discipline to interest Lederberg and while at Stanford he helped develop the SUMEX (Stanford University Medical Experimental) and DENDRAL (Dendritic Algorithm) database systems. Further explanation of the databases and Lederberg's involvement in their development can be found in Series IV: Research, Computer Science sub-series. The series includes drafts, correspondence, reports, grant applications, and manuals. In the mid-1960s he wrote a weekly scientific series in the Washington Post in which he commented on political and social concerns from a scientific perspective. The series known as Science and Man ran from 1966 to 1971. A complete run of the articles can be found in the Science and Man (SAM Files) sub-series in Series V: Writing. In addition to the original articles there are drafts, correspondence, and research material.

304.31 linear feet, (309 boxes).

National Library of Medicine