The following is the text of a letter about Esther Lederberg, the author preferring a degree of anonymity.
My conversion from an Organic Chemist to a Bacterial Geneticist happened soon after I set out on my first postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Boris Rotman at Syntex Molecular Biology under the mentorships of Joshua Lederberg and Carl Djerassi. It was through Ann Ganesan-Cook, a former PhD student of Josh, that I not only learned the art of replica plating according to the original procedure of Esther and Joshua Lederberg, but also gained access to their strain collection meticulously maintained and guarded by Esther herself. One mutant, Escherichia coli W4680, was of particular use for mapping the elusive TMG permease II to the melibiose operon (acknowledged in my 1968/reprint). I remember with pleasure the evening lectures at Stanford on current topics in Molecular Biology and Genetics as well as the 5 pm seminars featuring speakers like Milislav Demerec, Theodosius Dobshansky, Manfred Eigen, Severo Ochoa or Saul Roseman. On such occasions Esther in lieu of Josh (then Chairman of the Genetics Department) used to introduce invited speakers, which she did with grandeur and flavor.
One of the highlights at the Annual ASM Meetings in New York was a session on 'Bacterial Behavior', dealing with bacterial chemotaxis. At lunch Bob Macnab (Yale) and I were the youngest in an round of distinguished scientists, such as Julius Adler (Madison), Howard Berg (Pasadena), Herman Kalckar (Harvard), Henry Koffler (Lafayette), Dan Koshland (Berkeley), Esther Lederberg (Stanford) and Fritz Lipmann (Rockefeller). The discussion centered about the adaptation of bacteria to external stimuli by the methylation of receptors and to cells propelled by rotating flagella swimming up an attractant gradient. The break was too short for much personal exchange, and soon everyone rushed away not to miss the afternoon session.
I met Esther again at a Workshop on Bacterial Plasmids, organized by Tom Trautner at the Max-Planck-Institue in Berlin-Dahlem. Esther had established the 'Plasmid Reference Center' at Stanford, and we all were assigned letter combinations for newly discovered or constructed plasmids, likewise for transposons. Plasmids starting with the acronym RU (For Regensburg University) and transposon Tn1721 bear Esther's signature. She required that all published assignments were made known to her, and she regularly distributed lists reflecting the current state of the art. She was in favor of the two-letter combinations -- and some were in high demand like special license plates! I remember hearing her complain about colleagues that needed a three- or even four-letter combination to announce or protect their claims.
The 45th Cold Spring Harbor Symposium of Quantitative Biology entitled 'Recombination' featured new insights into the Genetics of the immune system and into mechanisms of non-homologous ('illegitimate') recombination elicited by transposable elements. Esther was familiar with the 'Mekka of Molecular Biology' since the early days, and I myself had lively recollections of two summer courses in Phage and Bacterial Genetics (1969/1971) -- memories of a serene campus and barbecues at the beach alternating with intense laboratory and seminar hours at a time, when Mary and Max Delbrück were still visiting during the summer. Esther agreed that Cold Spring Harbor was different during the Symposium, less intimate, more business-like -- however, highly inspiring. The evening sessions often ended past midnight. I remember having a full auditorium, when presenting my data late at 12.15 a.m.
In connection with a Keystone Conference I visited Stanford in April 1983. Esther had invited me for a seminar at the Department to present work on transposon Tn1721. This was my first return to Stanford since 1966, and I gratefully recall her skills in arranging an 'itinerary' for me to meet colleagues, such as Stan Cohen, Stan Falkow, Dale Kaiser, Roger Kornberg and Bruce Stocker. And we had time for a personal exchange during dinner at a nice restaurant. For me, this was a wonderful homecoming and a highly stimulating visit, thanks to Esther.
In July 1986 a Gordon Conference in a classical New Hampshire college (organized by the late Bob Rownd of Northwestern University, Chicago) brought together some 100 researchers interested in Bacterial Plasmids and Transposable Elements. The range of new observations led to some lively discussions with an audience including a good proportion of younger scientists. I remember an engaged discussion with Bernie Weisblum (Madison), a colleague with great talents in science and music, whom Esther knew (and liked very much) from his childhood days, when she worked at the University of Wisconsin. Such intense and glorious days (partly spent on mountain hikes and boat excursions) ended at a dinner party with the famous 'Plasmid Song', composed and presented by Esther and her 'crew'. The verses reflected (our anthropological view of) the life of bacteria endowed with multi-purpose plasmids:
After each verse, the whole assembly joined in with the chorus. -- Thanks to Esther and her team, the conference was brought to a cheerful close.
The International Congress of Genetics at Toronto brought together some 3000 scientists, who were lodged in Hotels throughout the City. So it was a pleasant coincidence, when we met Esther on one of the first days. This we celebrated with a joint dinner (picture). During the following days, I met Esther several times at plenary sessions, one of which I vividly remember because of a most comical episode. Esther and I were sitting next to each other somewhere in the middle of the main auditory to listen to Moto Kimura, an eminent Japanese scientist, who had made important contributions to the theory of molecular evolution. Unfortunately, the 'Japanese English' together with dim slides full of formulas did not make it easy at all to follow his presentation. Esther and I must have exchanged remarks (in a whispering voice), which obviously enraged a Japanese colleague five seats to the left: he jumped up and stared at us with the facial expression of a samurai posing at the entrance of Nikko (where famous Shoguns are buried). No question, we grew speechless at once! However, I am not certain, whether this 'educational burst' improved our comprehension of Kimura's seminar.
This was the first time back to California to meet friends at Berkeley, Livermore, Los Altos and Stanford. We had a wonderful reunion with Esther. She showed us relics of the great 1989 earthquake and we were glad to hear that Esther was not hit by the tumbling bookshelf on top of her bed. So we had any reason to celebrate our reunion with a delicious dinner at the Faculty Club and by attending a concert of the Stanford String Quartet playing Mozart and Brahms at the Dinkelspiel Auditorium (Program, font page). As ever, Esther was a most amiable and generous host.
Together, we visited the Bay Area again in May 1994 following a conference at Gralibakken/Lake Tahoe. We met with Esther and were delighted to find her in a harmonious union with her new husband, Matthew. Hence, we had good reason to celebrate our get-together at a gourmet restaurant. It was like continuing an old conversation, and none of us realized that this was our last rendezvous. This day, May 25, happened to be my birthday. As a surprise, I had been had presented with a tiny redwood from Muir Woods, which - after some years of careful cultivation and adaptation - has grown to be the 18-ft pride of our garden. For us, this Sequoia gigantea it is a lasting reminder of the day, when we said farewell to Esther.