THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY HO 1230 YORK AVENUE : NEW YORK,N.Y.10021 PHYSICIAN-IN-CHIEF June 11, 1979 Dr. Joshua Lederberg President The Rockefeller University Dear Josh: I have received the enclosed from Jim German in apparent response to the fact that he has not received a re-appointment letter as Adjunct Professor. The appointment was not included in the list from my labora- tory group because we were requested to keep to the absolute minimum such appointments; and since Jim has not participated at all in the activities of my own group or in relation to the CRC, his name was deleted. I have no interest in renewing the appointment with my own laboratory group, but others may wish to do so, or you may think it useful for general University purposes. The appointment was originally made at the suggestion of one of the Hospital faculty members who felt that Jim might participate actively in CRC programs, and as you recall he did, after strenuous urging on my part, submit a small program for inclusion in our 1976 CRC application. However, he has not utilized the inpatient facility at all. With respect to his comments about the RU clinic, there is a self- serving quality to the letter which I find displeasing. I had assured him much earlier that he could see any patients he wished in the RU clinic, in keeping with the fact that he had a Hospital appointment here; however, he has firmly insisted on having laboratory space in addition where he could carry out cytogenetic and other analyses re- lating to his clinic population. This request has been insistently made and I have consistently refused it. Jim German has had nearly five years in which to utilize the inpatient facility for his studies and has not done so. From my point of view, therefore, he is no particular asset to the Hospital despite his obvious capabilities in cytogenetics. The prospects of the Bloom will are overstated. Barry Dress, and I think someone else (Van Valer?) in the Development Office, has looked into it carefully and there appears no possibility that the Rockefeller University would benefit significantly from this small estate. Finally, there have been problems of a tempermental nature with respect to Jim German about which Alex Bearn earlier warned us - Sonya Mirsky has most Dr. Joshua Lederberg June 11, 1979 -2- recently felt the impact of this aspect of him. Before deciding whether you want to go ahead and renew his Adjunct Professorship (in some other laboratory) perhaps it would be useful to talk with her about her ex- perience with German. I have known him only distantly but even at that range find him difficult to deal with. He already has an appointment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and at Cornell University Medical College, so that an additional academic title here is somewhat redundant in any case. I will delay responding to him until I know whether you want to renew the Adjunct Professorship for him or not. As a compromise, we could continue his Hospital appointment for another year or two to see whether he is able to develop a clinical program suitable to the CRC. If he does not do that, then I would be against renewing the Hospital appointment as well since we already have a very large number of inac- tive staff. Yours sincerely, AttalYah Kappas, M.D. AK:maj Enclosure