THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION
49 WEST 49th STREET, NEW YORK 20

BIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL RESEARCH CABLE ADDRESS:

ROBERT S. MORISON, DIRECTOR RocKFouNnD, NEw YorK
HARRY M, MILLER, JR., ASSOCEATE DIRECTOR .

GERARD R. POMERAT, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR TELEPHONE:

RICHMOND K. ANDERSON, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR COLUMBUS §-8100

May 8, 1957
Dear Dr. Lederberg:

Your letter of April 2) in regard to possible renewal of your present
four-year grant catches us a bit short. As a matter of fact, I had suggested to
my colleague, Dr. Anderson, that he discuss the question with you when he passed
through Madison last winter. It tured out, however, that you were away and Dro
Anderson gained the impression that you would probably be spending the whole year,
rather than three months, in Australia. On this basis, we had rather crossed off
the possibility of renewing a grant from our program of activities for the spring.
At the moment, I am in a great rush trying to get things finished before leaving
for Europe next week. Dr. Anderson will be returning from Japan about that time
and I hope he can look into the possibility of getting some decision by the end
of June. Since the future plans for the development of genetics at Wisconsin
seem to be somewhat in a state of flux, it may be best to temporize for the
present.

Perhaps it would be well to say that the group here feels very keenly
the increasing desirability of husbanding the Foundation’s funds for purposes
for which funds are not reasonably easily available from other sources. In
drawing up plans for financing the new department of medical genetics, it would
be nice if you and Dean Bowers could bear this consideration in mind and limit
the request to this Foundation to items which cannot appropriately be covered by
grants from other organizations.

T hope you will understand that these somewhat stand-offish remarks
are based entirely on general considerations and that they reflect in no way the
opinion of any of us here on the quality of the work of your group. I am sure
you realize that the Foundation has been more than proud in being able to con-~
tribute financially to the outstanding series of investigations for which you
have been responsible and that several of us have a very special interest in
them because of their bearing on the Foundation's own long-standing interest on
the evolutionary behavior of viruses in the field.

Sincerely yours,

Wtet3 Peon

Robert S. Morison, MD.
Dr. Joshua Lederberg
The University of Wisconsin
Department of Genetics
Madison 6, Wisconsin

RSM: bjw