THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN Lik bother oe Ff
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE wu woe,

Madison 6

DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS

January 27, 1957

Dear Kim:

My dictated disk does not seem to have gotten a rise out of you, but per-
haps this can be put down to its own vagueness and not to your own reputation
for irresponsiveness,

I am sorry to appear to be so brusque at this point, but the fact is that
I have to start making some critical decisions for myself, And I am still hope-
ful that you might figure in some of them, If you're not interested, please say
so, rather than lead me to that inference by your prolonged silence. Unfortunately
I have scarcely a month, or I would try to be more diplomatic, But anyhpw,
I am going to let my hair down, and discuss same of my hopes, and ask that you
do the same in kind. This is not the way to conduct !formal negotiations! but
'nothing you say will be used against you',

Here's the story (which has crystallized since the record was mailed);

1. On one hand, I have a cross-fire of offers from Stanford-Biology (vice
Tatum) and Berkeley-Genetics (vice Clausen), They are both quite attractive to
us a) as an educational change of scene, b) the geographic and climatic setting
and ¢) same specific factors, @.g., the DNA-biochemistry at Berkeley; Dave Perkins
and some prospective new appointments at Stanford, as well as certain red~tape
advantages at the latter,

2. On the other hand, 'medical genetics' is moving ahead at Wisconsin. In sume
ways, I would have preferred that the qustion of my own role there have been left
to simmer another year or two--e.g, while trying to push for an offer to you
meanwhile, while I stayed at Genetics-~ but the California matter is bbinging
matters to a crisis. The following concrete proposal is about to be discussed
by a faculty committee; it already has very substantial backing from people of
good judgment and influence: that a Department of Medical Geneties be incor-
porated into the medical school, to consist of Newton Morton, "x" and myself,

As a matter of personal importance, this department would maintain the closest
relations with Genetics (I would keep my appointment there, and 'x! would have
to command the respect and interest of that department). The role of this depart-
ment would be within the scope of that mmaem memomandum we discussed when you
visited here, Facilities should be available for us in new construction now al-
most completed, and in a new research wang which has been appropriated for.
Now I have the ticklish problem of finding the solution for x = KCA..I
mm not sure that I want to accept the commitment if this proves impossible, but
there isn't time (vis-a-vis California) to find this out experimentally. So a
number of decisions that ought to be made sequentially have to be judged together,
I am doing my best to interest UW in this equation; tf the Department proposal is
mutually accepted, I would expect to have a more or less free hand in recommending
who x gught to be but there will remain the problem of finances, This can probably
be worked out to provided I can get some concrete understanding as to, and with x.
So this is what I am going to ask for, and can reasonably expect to get:
x= Associate Professor (i.e. tenure) in Medical Genetics, at say $8500 p.@. (I
hope you don't balk at that figure: UW has a well established histary of relatively

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low initial offers, followed by remarkably rapid advances thereffter, This is
my best guess as to what I could wangle, but if you could make a showing that
this would not be competitive with your present salary, or with your alternative
EEmERM prospects, something more might be done. I personally would not con-
sider you in the right setting at less than a full professorship and 10,000

(not as a plateau, but as a current standing) but I would be concretely disap-
pointed if it took two, at most three, years to reach that,

As tem to operating funds and facilities, I can only say that anyone on
campus has been able to get what he reasonably needed (that is for his research,
not his prestige) between state funds, WARF, and outside grants, Rather than
discuss that, I would rather take for granted that a rapprochement would be
worked out-- and if it can't than it won't, bat we can't discuss that in detail
now. However, if you mmx anticipate any extraordinary features of this aspect,
please let me know.

The most reasonable time to put this in effect would be July 1958, but
this is quite flexible.

I think youm understand the mission and terms of the appointment. Most of
your Nawxkkkx time would be on your own research. What you work on is your own
business, but if you had no interest whatever in broader relations to medicine,
you probably wouldn't care for the job. We also want you to join in organizing
a coherent program of collateral research and graduate training in medical genetics
sensu latu, The formal teaching requirements appear to be nominal: we have to
work out among themselves what we felt we should do. One inteeesfxing angle is
a medical science program that is being worked experimentally, to try to train
about 10 medical students to be full-blown scientists as wells as practitioners,
by taking another year or two in their studies (If have my doubts ahout this
particular approach, but it may lead to more effective routes to the same end.)
Another angle to the same end is post-graduate medical training in genetics; the
resources of both departments are here, But our first obligation is that our
own individual research be inherently good and directed to fundamental problems,
obvious relevance to medicine notwithsaadding. (I have no intention of changing
the ditection of my own research program, at least not on this account.)

I will mustetiy modestly assume that the leadership of this program would
most effectively rest on my shoulders for the time--but even if you could imagine
me as an autocrat, there is a strong tradition of faculty democracy here, and
in any case I would not propose that the (I hope not too onerous) administrative
burdens be left unshared,

Now here is what I ask yf you. This is the program I am proposing to the
medical school, It is morelikely to be effective if I can name you as target x
(so send me a vita and a bibliography; most important an expression of your
interest in the program, and your analytical views as to your place in it,
research interests, what med, gen. ought to be, etc.) I am not silly enough
to ask you to accept an offer you haven't received. If you can tell me what
might be wrong with this draft, and whether you are interebéed enough to encourage
me to keep x=KCA as a consideration in my own thinking, that's what I'm mainly
after, But I must hear from you soon. Needless to say, this trouble on my part
(even if it is pompously expressed) only measures how much TI would value our
working together again, I am sorry that circumstances tend to pht us, for the
moment, in an administmative relationship, but those circumstances would start
to melt as soon as you were here, The sooner we can light the fire, the better.

Yrs,