January 19, 1965

Dr. Alan Garen

Department of Molecular Biology and Blophysics
The Josiah Willard Gibbs Research Laboratories
Yale University

Box 2166 Yale Station

New Haven, Connacticut

Dear Alan:

If I have any difficulty in responding to your letter about Norton Zinder

it is that of having to restate the obvious, and especially since you have
bean so closely associated with him yourself and could speak for his out-

standing qualifications first hand.

His work as a graduate student on Salmonella transduction is of course very
well known and has laid the basis for a large part of the further exploration
of bacterial genetics. Since then, in addition to exploring this line, and
his imaginative work (with you) on radiobiology of phage, he has opened more
new doors with the discovery of the male-specific RNA phages and their
exploitation to answer some of the most fundamental end most difficult ques-
tions of molecular biology. Dr. Zinder has a special knack for turning up

the unexpected, thereby pioneering new fields rather than following the
bandwagon.

I am especially proud to be able to recommend him to my own alma mater, and
do so without hesitation. I hope he dces move, for the general benefit of
his functioning in a true university.

Good luck,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

AXpulZ