DSLS 1981-1982

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  Gene Isolation and Manipulation: A New Window on Our Heredity

  Paul Berg

  (This information was taken from the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1981-1982).

  Dr. Berg, Nobel laureate and Willson Professor of biochemistry at Stanford University Medical Center. was born in New York City. He is a 1948 alumnus of Pennsylvania State University and earned his Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from Western Reserve University in 1952. During the next two years he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Cytophysiology in Copenhagen and at Washington University in St. Louis. He remained at Washington University as a scholar in cancer research and then as a faculty member until 1959, when he joined Stanford. He is a former chairman of the deportment of biochemistry at Stanford's School of Medicine. and is currently a nonresident fellow of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In 1980 he received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids. particularly, recombinant DNA. He also received the 1980 Gairdner Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences Awards in recognition of his outstanding studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, and the 1980 Albert Lasker Medical Award for his contributions to basic medical sciences.

  His Work: At present. Dr. Berg's research is on the mechanism of gene expression in higher organisms. particularly the interplay of viral and cellular genes in regulating growth and division. Specifically, he has developed new enzymatic and physical approaches to analyzing the structure of simple viral chromosomes and thereby made possible a molecular approach to their genetics. In addition, he and his colleagues have been active in the development of recombinant DNA techniques to introduce new genetic information into mammalian cells with virus DNA vectors. These experiments are designed to explore the chemistry and biology of mammalian and human chromosomes and hopefully to provide the basic knowledge for the prevention, management and cure of hereditary diseases

  His Lecture: "Gene Isolation and Manipulation: A New Window on Our Heredity"

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  From Einstein to Anti-Matter

  Paul Dirac

  (This information was taken from the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1981-1982).

  RECORDING UNAVAILABLE

  Dr. Dirac, a Nobel laureate, is professor emeritus and a fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, England. where he was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1932 to 1969. He has been professor of physics at Florida State University since 1977. Born in Bristol, he was educated at the University of Bristol and St. John's College. His pioneer work in the quantum mechanics of the atom won him the Nobel prize in physics, along with Erwin Schrodinger, in 1933 at the age of 31. He was also awarded the royal medal of the Royal Society in 1939. Professor Dirac received the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1952 for his contributions to quantum theory, Including his formulation with Enrico Fermi of the Fermi-Dirac statistics and his work on the quantum theory of electromagnetic radiation. He has been honored with the Queen of England's Order of Merit and is a member of the Papal Academy. His major work is The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, a classic in its field.

  His Work: One of the great mathematical physicists of the 20th century, Professor Dirac is one of a select few. including Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrodinger, Enrico Fermi and others, whose theories have transformed our understanding of the physical universe. In 1928, Professor Dirac published a version of quantum mechanics that supplemented Einstein's theory of relativity and predicted the presence of anti-matter in the universe. Dirac's equation for the motion of a particle is a relativistic modification of the Schrodinger wave equation. the basic equation of quantum mechanics. For their work, Dirac and Schrodinger shared the 1933 Nobel prize in physics.

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  Spatial Configurations of Macromolecules

  Paul J. Flory

  (This information was taken from the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1981-1982).

  Dr. Flory, Nobel laureate and J.G. Jackson - C.J. Wood Professor of chemistry at Stanford University, was born in Sterling, Illinois. He received his B.Sc. degree from Manchester College in Indiana in 7931 and his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from Ohio State University in 7934. His long and distinguished scientific career i1tcludes experience in industry, research and the academic community. A leader in the field of polymer behavior, he was the sole recipient of the 7974 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Before joining Stanford in 7967,D r. Flory served as executive director of research at the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh, was on the faculty of Cornell University and the University of Cincinnati, and did research at DuPont, Standard Oil and Goodyear. His many awards, in addition to the Nobel Prize, include the American Physical Society's High Polymer Physics Prize in 1962, the American Chemical Society's Priestley Medal in 1974, and the National Medal of Science in 7974 . His book, Principles f Polymer Chemistry is a classic in its field, and another book, Statistical Mechanics of Chain Molecules, has been translated into Russian and Japanese.

  His Work: Dr. Flory has been a leader in research on the chemistry and physics of giant molecules, or polymers, which make up such materials as natural and synthetic rubber, fibers, and plastics. He first entered this field as a member of the research team under Dr. Wallace H. Carothers of DuPont, whose original investigations led to the discovery of nylon. Dr. Flory's investigations have turned increasingly toward polymers that resemble proteins and other biological materials. He and his collaborators have demonstrated a close resemblance between elasticity of the fibrous proteins in ligaments, blood vessels, tendons, and muscles on the one hand, and of various rubber-like natural and synthetic polymers on the other.

  His Lecture:"Spatial Configurations of Macromolecules"

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  Is Vacuum a Physical Medium?

  Tsung-Dao Lee

  (This information was taken from the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1981-1982).

  Dr. Lee, Nobel laureate and Enrico Fermi Professor of physics at Columbia University, was born in China. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1950. Among the youngest men ever to receive a Nobel award, Dr. Lee, at the age of 30, was named co-recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in physics with Dr. C.N. Yang. Before joining Columbia in 1953, he served on the faculty of the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley, and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Dr. Lee received the Albert Einstein Award in Science in 1957, was the Loeb Lecturer at Harvard that year and again in 1964, and held a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1966.

  His Work: Dr. Lee, along with Dr. Yang, shared the Nobel Prize in 1957 for their discoveries that challenged the principle of "Conservation of Parity," on which much of modern physics had been based. The principle says that objects which are mirror images of each other must obey the same physical rules. They theorized that in key cases parity need not be observed and a series of subsequent experiments proved them right.

  His Lecture: "Is Vacuum a Physical Medium?"

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  Einstein, the Science and the Life

  Abraham Pais

  (This information was taken from the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1981-1982).

  Dr. Pais. Detlev W. Bronk Professor of The Rockefeller University, was born in Amsterdam. Holland. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Amsterdam in 1938 and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Utrecht in 1942. In 1945, he went to the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen. Denmark. as a research fellow with Niels Bohr. Dr. Pais came to the United States in 1946 to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. New Jersey. He became a professor there in 1950. He joined The Rockefeller University in 1963 and was named Detlev W. Bronk Professor in 1981. He was the James Arthur Balfour Professor at the Weizmann Institute in Israel and has also served as visiting professor at CERN, the European atomic energy center. In 1979. he received the 11th Annual J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize. awarded by the Center for Theoretical Studies of the University of Miami. Among his publications is the book. Subtle is the Lord ... the Science and the Life of Albert Einstein.

  His Work: Dr. Pais is an eminent theoretical physicist and a founding father of the field of porticle physics. He and his colleagues have investigated fundamental porticle processes at high energies, symmetries of strong and weak interactions. and quantum field theory. He has played a leading role in several developments which aim to provide an explanation for the behavior of the interactions in particle physics. For example, he stated the principle of associated production which was found to govern the behavior of "strange" particles. A number of his contributions deal with the symmetry principles of physics. such as the SU( 6) theory developed around 1965. He is a co-discoverer of the idea of "particle-mixing," which is necessary for the understanding of the so-called neutral K-particle complex.

  His Lecture: "Einstein, the Science and the Life"

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  From Chemical Lasers to the Atmosphere of Mars

  George C. Pimentel

  (This information was taken from the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1981-1982).

  Dr. Pimentel, director of the Laboratory of Chemical Biodynamics and professor at the University of California at Berkeley, was born in Rolinda, California. He received his BA degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1943 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1949 from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Pimentel served as Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation from 1977 to 1980. He has been a member of the chemistry faculty at Berkeley since 1949. A Guggenheim Fellow in 1955, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1966 and two years later was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award in 1974 and was recipient of the E.K. Plyler Prize in Molecular Spectroscopy in 1979. In 1980 he received the Ellis R. Lippincott Medal and the Distinguished Service Gold Medal from the National Science Foundation.

  His Work: Dr. Pimentel's research has been in the fields of infrared spectroscopy, chemical lasers, molecular structure, free radicals, and hydrogen bonding. His interests have centered on the application of spectroscopic methods to the study of unusual chemical bonding. A major contribution was the development and exploitation of the matrix isolation method for the spectroscopic detection of highly unstable molecules. Application of this matrix isolation method led to the discovery of many unusual and highly reactive molecules that could not otherwise have been detected. His pioneering development of rapid scan techniques for infrared spectroscopy led to the design of a unique infrared spectrometer for the 1969 Mariner interplanetary spacecraft to determine the composition of the atmosphere of Mars.

  His Lecture: "From Chemical Lasers to the Atmosphere of Mars"

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  Photoaffinity Labeling: Marking the Receptors for Biological Molecules

  Frank H. Westheimer

  RECORDING UNAVAILABLE

  (This information was taken from the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1981-1982).

  Dr. Westheimer. Morris Loeb Professor of chemistry at Harvard University, was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He received his BA degree from Dartmouth in 1932, his M.A. degree from Harvard in 1933, and his Ph.D. degree from Harvard in 1935. In 1935-36. he was a National Research Fellow at Columbia under the sponsorship of Professor L.P. Hammett. The following year he was appointed research associate at the University of Chicago, and later assistant professor. During 1944 and 1945 he was a research supervisor at the Explosive Research Laboratory of the National Defense Research Committee; as a result of this work. he was awarded the ArmyNavy Certificate of Appreciation and the Naval Ordnance Award. In 1946 he returned to Chicago as an associate professor and became full professor in 1948. He returned to Harvard as a visiting professor in 1953, was appointed professor in 1954, and served as chairman of the deportment from 1959-62. Among his numerous honors. he was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1962. and in 1974 was a Fulbright-Hayes Fellow in Yugoslavia. In 1970 he received the James Flack Norris Award in physical organic chemistry and the Willard Gibbs Medal. In 1980 he received the National Academy of Sciences Award in chemical science.

  His Work: Dr. Westheimer's career has included calculations of electrostatic effects and of steric effects in organic chemistry, the determination of the mechanisms of chromic acid oxidation, enzymic and metal-ion promoted decarboxylation, biochemical oxidation-reduction reactions which require diphosphopyridine nucleotide as coenzyme, the mechanisms of the hydrolysis of phosphate esters. and photoaffinity labeling.

  His Lecture: "Photoaffinity Labeling: Marking the Receptors for Biological Molecules

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  Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1981-1982

  Bard College

  Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1981-1982, published by the Bard Center

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  Styles and Patterns in Biomedical Research

  Joshua Lederberg

  (This information was taken from the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Program 1981-1982).

  
  

  Dr. Lederberg, Nobel laureate and president of The Rockefeller University, was born in Montclair, New Jersey. He received his BA degree from Columbia College in 7944, then entered Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. After two years he transferred to Yale University, where he received his Ph.D. degree in microbiology in 7947. In 7958, at the age of 33, he was named a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine along with Dr. E.L. Tatum and Dr. George Beadle. From 1947 to 1959, Dr. Lederberg was professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin where he served as chairman of the department of medical genetics from 7957-59. In 1959 he joined the faculty of the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he was the Joseph D. Grant Professor of genetics and chairman of the department of genetics. He was concurrently professor of biology and professor of computer science at Stanford. He was named president of The Rockefeller University in 1978.

  His Work: Dr. Lederberg pioneered in the field of bacterial genetics. Prior to his discovery that bacterial strains could be crossed to produce an offspring containing a new combination of genetic factors, scientists had known little about the bacterial genetic mechanism and many even doubted that bacteria possessed a genetic mechanism similar to that of higher organisms. Later, at the University of Wisconsin, he showed that bacterial genetic material was exchanged not only by conjugation (when the entire complement of chromosomes is transferred from one bacterial cell to another) but also by transduction (when only fragments are transferred). This was among the first demonstrations of the manipulation of any organism's genetic material, and it opened prospects of far-reaching genetic experimentation.

  His Lecture: "Styles and Patterns in Biomedical Research"