SF EVE Ss Ke pe.

 
    

Yay
3 a No THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY
O Rockefeller m1 - ~
" University /S 1230 YORK AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10021
Oy 1QO1 4 .

Ox September 13, 1979

JOSHUA LEDERBERG

PRESIDENT

Dr. Leonard H. Weinstein

Program Director Environmental Biology

Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant
Research at Cornell University

Tower Road

Ithaca, New York 14853

Dear Dr. Weinstein:

I was interested to learn you are considering
Eugene Nester as Managing Director of Boyce Thompson
Institute.

Eugene Nester was a postdoctoral fellow in my lab
from September 1961 to August 1962. He did pioneering
work on linkage and other aspects of molecular genetics
of B. subtilis, and has maintained a role of high pro-
ductivity in molecular biology ever since.

His recent work on the transfer of Plasmid DNA to
plant cells is an important breakthrough in fundamental
plant biology. It will sure also havé important appli-
cations in crop improvement.

His work is insightful and particularly efficient
and well organized. He is also a personable and thought-
ful human being. These, generally, are just the attri-
butes one seeks in a laboratory director. He is bound to
be respected even more as a leader of an organization
rather than of a school of thought. As I knew him he had
a rather broad scientific culture, and he should relate
well to all aspects of his role at the Boyce Thompson
Institute. His work on the biochemical genetics of aro-
matic metabolism in B. subtilis was solid and useful, and

his new work on crown gall shows innovative and productive
insight.

I have, of course, no direct experience of him as a
professional colleague in school affairs, but he does have
a deep loyalty to microbiology as an important discipline
Dr. Leonard H. Weinstein
September 13, 1979

-~2-

with many ramifications for human affairs. I think you
will find him tough and stubborn on the right issues,
but always fair-minded and temperate.

I think he would do a first rate job at your in-
stitution. Possibly excepting Peter Carlson, I cannot

think of any obviously more qualified candidate in this
range of age and experience.

Yours sincerely,
a
. Z
J Tle. we.
, voshua Lederberg]