October 11, 1963

CONFIDERTIAL

Dr. FL. H.C. Créck

M.R.C. Unit for Molecular Siology
Hitls Road

Cambridge, England

Dear Francis:

tan writing on behalf of Mort Mandel, who would give his eyeteeth to
work with you. If my reaction is a bit tepid, perhaps because he has
not been pushing as hard as 1 would have liked on the job he was ‘hired!’
for’ = the exploration of NMR for differential analysis of phosphate
groups in DNA In connection with an exobiological problem, but he cer-
tainly has the right to spend the time he has in soaking up general
biology. He is enthusiastic, {| would say spottily bright, verhaps
because his training Is so recent In areas | would know anything about.
We had a very specific job for which he should have been well suited
and (except temperanentally) undoubtedly is; we did not really inves-
tigate him from your standpoint and | am still uncertain what to say.
(i mean Just that, not ‘nd').

If you do yet a good reading on his qualifications as a shysicist (and his
offer of a faculty position at Washington University may be testimony of
It) he might play a very worthwhile role in your group, especially if you
did want such a physical type anong the others. Ne is not (yet?) very
aggressive In his thinking, perhaps rightly,as his factual base in

biology or biochemistry started out very thin; he ts not the $zilerd type
of theoretician willing to ask questions from such a base.

-

If you had some use for NMR = and 1 suppose you should ~ this might well
tip the balance of your own judgment.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics