November 9, 1959

Dear Kim: *

Norm Kretchmer told me he had received the kind of assurances he needed from
Dean Alway to warrant his writing you more formally what you had discussed at
Princeton. | may have stayed [In the background during this, but | would not
want you to thinkfor a moment that | was disinterested. Far from it. i think
this is 4 terrific opportunity for all of us, and just the kind of organizational
set up |! would have planned myself, if such matters went according to plans.
Youn appointment in Pediatrics will give you a clear field for full development
of an independent program, probably ampler than anything we could have devised
in the Genetics department alone. And we will still have all the advantages of
close physical and intellectual proximity. Needless to say | will be very happy
if we can dignify you (and ourselves) with an additional title in Genetics;
though it wlll save much red tape if your formal responsibilities, salary, etc.
Stay with Norm and the Pediatrics Department.

From your own point of view, i think Pediatrics would be your best possible
home base, especially if you mean to keep any contact at all with clinica] xm§xxx .
medicine. This is the logical department to follow up In the teaching of genetics.
during the clinical years (which should not bar you at all from helping us out
in the basic science genetics course If you have a mind to). And your base in
a clinical depsriment will certainly be invaluable for the collection of experi-
mental material as may become increasingly important to you In thex ramification
of your program. The main difficulty that | can see is attached to your quali-
Fi¢ation In Pedlatrics will be the problem you will have in fightiag off offers
of chairs in this field!

Norm has proven to be a splendid colleague, and | think his own drive and per-
ception and constructive outlook represent one of the Important attributes here.
He is also a very practical minded and direct sort of person who tells you Just
what is on his mind, and makes no bones about it. You would be fortunate in having
him do the chores of running the department.

Genetics, as I've told you, Is moving Rayx rather cautiously; particularly if
you do come | am not zm keen for ug to mxmp expand too far. We do have a potential
opening for someone comparable to Willys Silvers or Avrion Mitchison; 1 want to be
quite sure that neither of them {s available (as it now looks) before widening the
search. We now have Len Herzenberg, as an assistant professor, working on tissue
culture of mouse cells (just arrived out of Eagle's lab.) and Gus Nossal working:
Onantibody formaglor.. Henry KXMX Kaplan does a very impressive line of research
in leukemégenesis in radlology. Biology has Yanofsky and Perskins in Genetics,
and Grobsieln in experimental embryology. Chemistry Is getting a terrffic boost
with Carl Djerassi and Bill Johnson in steroid chemistry. There Is an excellent
crew here in experimental physics; happily i don't think the 2-mile accelerator
planned here to start next year will spoil tke atmosphere or the terrain of the |
campus too much. And of course { don't have to say much to you abowst Blochemistry.
(Kornberg, Mel Cohn, Paul Berg, Dave Hagness, Dale Kaiser,...) An important point
is that Stanford is not too big a place, and particularly around the medical school
there Is some meaning to havéng these people close by.

 
1 think it's Impertant too that there Is keen Interest in genetics; people ii
the clinical areas who don't understand it toe well regret this, and there is cer-
tainly none of the hostility and old fogeyism that you see in some larger and older
schools. The general spirit of the faculty here, particularly in the medical school,
is very good -- the rest of the university has sometimes tended to be a bit sleepy,
but there are many exceptions to this, and we are helping to wake shaxam them up.
Happily there isn't any of the dogfighting you tend to see around Berkeley -- another
virtue of avoiding gigantism. The administration tends to leave us all alone, to do
our work, and to use our own Initiative -- we don't have a strong president in the
sense Hutchens was.

Living out here is, of course, unbeatable. And you can take your choice of settling
in the campus community on university land (there is a large new development of 1. 3-
1/2 acre lots where we are just Startéag to build ourselves), or In the foothills 10-
20 minutes away by car If youfe keen on views and privacy. E We get into San Francisco
for dinner or a play or shopping about once a week, and to the ocean beach or the
redwood forests aboutg as often.

Also Berkeley is near enough to be meaningful, though it does take just 75 minutes
by throughway. We have found ourselves up there a cpuple of times a month for seminars
genetics clubs, etc.-- and that's a spykenses splendid crowd there too! Frankly !
think I'm very lucky to have not ended yp at Berkeley but nearby, to eat the cake and
have it too.

Palo Alto itself is another suburban community, now essentially continuous [th
the other towns that string down the mmm peninsula. It's pleasant enough, but apart
from the university not very exciting.

On the whole, and In most of the parts, Stanford comes out as being just about the
ideal university community. You wouldn't belleve me If | pretended there were no fault
perhaps the worst Is Just the chronic and univergal shortage of really large sums of
money for knkan instantaneous implementation of every good idea. But Stanford Is
well implanted in the California scene, and ehere Is no possibility of any trouble
on thig account; just as in most places we have to build up our own financing to a
large extent through outside grants, which is just what these are for. We have a splen
did group of people here, but never so many we aren't eager to have you join us.

You and Barbee are going to have enough common sense to know when the Irresistible
is worth accepting; If | can be of any kind of help, hasten.

Hy phone number Is DA-1-1200, Ext 5052; home: (715 Partridge Ase., Menlo Park)
DA 2 .

As ever,

Joshua Lederberg