September 10, 1964

Dr. L. Edgar Lee, Jr.

Assistant Director

The Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund
for Medical Research

333 Cedar Street

New Haven 11, Connecticut

Dear Dr. Lee:

This is in response to your letter of August 31 cencerning Dr. Haruo
Ozeki.

I can give what is mainly a second~hand impression, since I have had
only very little personal contact with him. He certainly did prove Sy
himself a very imaginative and intelligent worker in his studies both

with Dr. Demerec at Cold Spring Harbor and with my very close colleague, ‘

Dr. Bruce Stocker, in London. I have also visited him briefly in Tokyo, yy
and found that he was relatively well set up there by comparison with >
other inetitutions in Japan, although, as hardly needs be dafid, still ae

suffering from serious financial stringencies. I think it must be said
that the very first rank of Japanese scientists in this field have tended
to migrate to the United States, with a few exceptions. Of those who

have chosen to remain in Japan, Ozeki certainly. belongs in the top echelon.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

P.S. I put these remarks in a postscript because they really have nothing
to do with Ozeki's specific qualifications. Your inquiry about Ozeki
reminds me that Japan is a country that you probably should give special
emphasis to in your grants program, since there is probably a greater
disproportion there between enthusiastic and well-trained people in con-
trast to the facilities with they must work than in any other country.
Furthermore, there are signs that the country is just beginning to reach
the level of economic affluence and interest in sefence to furnish the
necessary support, and a few prototypes in very basic fields might help a
great deal to achleve a suitable orientation of the over-all scientific
program as it develops. I would by no means wish to downgrade Ozeki in
lr. L. Edgar Lee, Jr. September 10, 1964
Page 2

this regard, for he is a very worthy fellow, but there is one place where
institutional support could go a very long way, and that is the Institute
for Molecular Biology and Cenetics ahat Kikkawa is struggling to establish
and maintain at Osaka Medical School. Perhaps you have already heard from
them; if you have not, I believe it would be a mark of considerable altruism
to find some informal way of establishing a contact with Dr. Kikkawa,