Lederberg, Joshua (1925-2008), an American geneticist, shared the 1958 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. He won this prize for his studies of bacteria. Lederberg also served as an adviser to the United States government and to international health organizations.
Lederberg was born on May 23, 1925, in Montclair, New Jersey. While at Yale University in the mid-1940’s, he helped prove that some bacteria reproduce sexually. Previously, scientists had believed that all bacteria reproduce asexually—that is, by simply dividing in two. After earning a Ph.D. degree from Yale in 1948, Lederberg taught at the University of Wisconsin. There he conducted research on how bacterial cells transfer their genes to other bacterial cells. His work helped pave the way for much of today’s genetic research.
After leaving Wisconsin, Lederberg taught at Stanford University from 1959 to 1978. He then served as president of Rockefeller University from 1978 to 1990.
Lederberg worked with the U.S. government to develop policies for combating the use of harmful biological agents in war and terrorism. He also served in the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), the world’s principal agency for dealing with health problems. This advisory work helped earn him the U.S. National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest science award, in 1989. He died on Feb. 2, 2008.
