¥ fitat JUL = 6 1577
TS astenr

 

Paris, le --29.6.1977 -
25, RUE DU DOCTEUR ROUX
(XV* Arrond*)
Téléphone : 566-58-00
RYS/as/77.183
Dr. J. Lederberg
Stanford University of Medicine
Department of Genetics
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford, California 94305
U.S.A.
1)
+
Dear Josh: 8S
>
. . o“°
Sorry, I can't help you. Although I was a graduate student at 6
Stanford during the critical period (1939-42), I worked entirely at the “”
Marine Station, and was consequently not familiar with what went on in -
the Biology department on campus. My first recollection of the Neurospora D
project is an informal talk to van Niel's group (probably in Kees’ house) 4
by Ed Tatum, when the first auxotrophic mutants had already been isolated ;
this was no doubt in late 1941 or early 1942. <
¢

Have you consulted Kees and Lawrence Blinks ? I know that Kees
was much involved in the restructuring of the biology curriculum that
followed creation of the School of Biological Sciences ; and he may
therefore have some recollection of the Comparative Biochemistry course
to which you allude, and about which he would very likely have been
consulted by Ed Tatum.

It is hard for me to believe that no records for those years
of the activities of the Department (or School, as it then was) have
been preserved. I wonder whether Lawrence Blinks might not be able to
help you out about this, either from his own records or from the
archives of the Marine Station. Perhaps worth a try. Failing any
additional information, I don't see any reason to doubt Beadle's
published account of the genesis of the project.

All the best,

R. Y. Stanier J