Tel, 23.029; 29.038 - Indirizzo telegrafico: Istgenetica ~ Pavia

MAR 2 9 1965

 

ISTITUTO DI GENETICA Professor Joshua Lederberg

Department of Medical Genetics
UNIVERSITA DI PAVIA Stanford University Medical
VIA SANT' EPIFANIO, 14

Center
PAVIA Palo Alto, California
U.S.A,
March 20, 1965

Dear Joshua:
I have received your note on Daedalus, it is interesting
that other people had an idea very near yours, or are you

Daedalus?

I'm sorry to confess that nothing much has happened on

biopoiesis for some time, We have been busy with a number of

things and as to myself, I have not had any energy to push

anything except what was absolutely urgent, =
There must have been some confusion from what I wrote y

to Arturo, though I hoped it would convey a clear idea of what =

the situation is now at Naples, Let me summarize if for you so é

that you are completely aware of the situation now. —

Since the middle of July, 1964, when I became director
at Naples, I had to go there fairly often, Say once every week
maybe for just one day but enough, in any case, to disrupt
much of my work here, It was also necessary for me to
go to Rome a number of times in order to find out what the
main issues were and how the problems could be solved,

It has teken a fair amount of time and various events delayed the
final outcome, but to make a long story short, I finally
managed to convince the financing agency, The National
Research Council, that the best thing to do was to leave the
laboratory at Naples again as it was, with all the liberty it

had and eventually they recognized that this was the best thing .
And all the liberty it meant also that the laboratory people
would be able to choose Buzzati as its director and after some
long talks this was eventually obtained, At the end of January,
The administration had heen named again and it met and this
was the essential condition for having a new director, In fact,
the director is named by the laboratory according to the statutes
but is confirmed by the administrative board and in the

absence of it, it was impossible to have any new director.

I have been asked to act as vice director so as to assure a
smoother transition to normality and I am doing it but staying
in Pavia, which means that I am going to Naples now about
once a month. So everything is practically back to normal.
The financial condition.has improved from what it was in June
and we now have a little more money so that we plan to get
an electromicroscropy research team in Naples. .

The question concerning Arturo is only whether he should
work at Naples or in Pavia, For one thing, he had to be
Willing to work in Pavia rather than in Naples, and he answered
that he was. I must now bring the matter before the board of
the Laboratory research workers, but I hope that there will
be no major objection to this,

We still have a few problems to solve, like choosing a new
administrative director (the old one was not very good and he
went) and apart from that, I hope there will be no major
trouble coming out in the future. I have expended a great
deal of energy in this and it is only after the end of the mission
that I have been able to relax, I am now almost completely,

I hope, normal, As to future plans, I have unfortunately
accepted an invitation to give a seminar in Denver and I have
recently had a letter from Eisther who kindly reminded me-:of
your standing invitation to Stanford on that occasion; Unfortunately,
I had promised to give papers at two meetings which turned

out to be overlapping with the Denver meeting: one of them is

in early September (WHO and population meeting at Belgrade),
I hope Bodmer may take my place in it or that we might give

a joint paper. The second is an ISI meeting just after Denver,
also at Belgrade and I must go at least to the second meeting ;
If I stay in the States, it must be before Denver and not after
it; It is somewhat difficult for me now to see whether or not
this will be feasible, It also depends on whether Walter is
coming during August or not and, if not, much depends on
whether Walter will come for the next academic year or not,

I am hoping he will because his manifold skills. could be extremely
useful down here, I hope very mueh that we may take this
opportunity, if it arises, to write something of the things that we
had in mind. I am also thinking hard on what to do next now
that I am coming back relaxed to a less discontinuous type

of work than in the last seven months, JI have your letter of
December 18 mentioning the possibilities of research under my
eyes, I am thinking of it but I don't think I can contribute to
chemical work in any substantial way, at least not to the part
that you have already carried out so far, There may be some
more hopes that I may be able to do something on the formal
analysis, as you call it, of molecular biology (what I would
rather like to call mechanized induction) with a view to devise
better experiments by machine.

In any case, I don't want to make any rash decisions as
I have to make sure that the human work that I have started
goes to a reasonable end and this will take some of my efforts
in any case, And, I have to plan a kind of work that can rea-
sonably be done in a country which has the limitations that
ours has,

If you are at Stanford, even if you do not come to Fort
Collins in the beginning of September, there is a chance that I
may be able to say hello to you,

Please thank Esther for her very charming letter and show
her this letter of mine ag if it were addressed to both. I'm sure
you enjoy Pescadero very much: but I also hope you will plan
some time to spend a reasonable period in this place,

All the best,

Yours sincerely
dae COL
L.L, Cavalli-Sforza

LLCS/aam

P.S. I have reasons to be in Italy on September 1st. This
limits the possibility of staying in Stanford to the week end
of September the 5th, I hope I may arrive on the 3rd.
Would this be all right?