July 8, 1969

Dr. Lawrence Okun

Department of Biological Chemistry
Harvard Medical School

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Dear Larry,

If Gan has been in touch with you since your letter I hope he
will have been able to communicate better information about the very
high esteem thet I have for him and his confident understanding about
our plans for his promotion during the next cycle. It is the old story
of presumed communication. I thought I had made these matters absolutely
clear to him and they were so self-evidently reasonable that I could not
imagine any possibility of his doubt about it. But on important matters
one can never repeat the fact often enough.

I very much appreciate the spirit of your remarks about Gan and even
more about yourself.

I doen't know why you should be self-critical about the unease you
express about the human condition. Less perceptive or less intelligent
people may be able to supress their concerns or escape them in one way
or another but if you want to cali them “adolescent” I have to jump into
the same category myself, regardless.

That we do share so much in our world outlook is one reason that
I am very eager to find a way for you to come back here if only to find
some strength in mutual commiseration. But I have much more in mind than
that. I am only afraid that if I stress one specific proposal that you
may take it too seriously when in fact I could happily foresee any one
of a number of alternatives depending in large measure on your own
predilections. I am working on the possibility of offering you a faculty
appointment but before trying to firm this up I think we should come to
a more definite understanding of the kind of role you might like to try
out. IT am not in a position to make a definite offer along these lines
just yet but I can unequivocally offer you the opportunity of coming
here at any time with an interim appointment and with a comfortable
salary and working facilities.

over

 

 

 
What crosses my mind as the most appropriate would be for you
to come here and spend approximately half of your time on research
of your own choosing, by no means excluding the kind of molecular
biology in which we share a direct interest. For the rest of your
time I would like you to help us to organize and co-ordinate the
program in human biology of which I sent you a very general prospectus
and also to work with me on trying te find routes by which to answer
the kind of questions that are outlined on the attached sheet (part
of an informal application for some funds). I think we have to do more
than just bemoan the problem of the intellectual and get on te doing
something about whatever contribution we can make towards helping to
straighten out the world and the roles that individuals can play in
relation to it. I don't have a clear enough picture to be able to
recommend and try to implement any particular inetitutional structure
but the university ie certainly sufficiently flexible to be able to
do very many different things and the development of thie new human
biology program would only extend that capability. Not least of all
there are very good odds of getting some very useful funds to help
support new projects.

I hope some of these suggestions may be on the right track but
whether or not,tplease do give me your reactions to them.

Quf work with chlorine and DNA is still too indecisive to write
simply about it. There ia no question but that chloramine reacts with
and inactivates transforming DNA and we are still chaeing down the
chemical aspects of that reaction. Margerie Shaw is going to look at
chromosome breakage in cell culture and Evelyn Witkin has a tentative
collaboration of the mutagenicity of hypochloride in E. coli. The
public health issues are going to rest mainly on the transport of
chlorinated intermediates to the intact animal.

I agree with you about Wicker and Reston. Edna will get your
message about the columns.

All the best.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

Enclosure
JL/rr