CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON

DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS

COLD SPRING HARBOR, LONG ISLAND, N. Y.

20 February, 1950

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Deabrtmant of Gene tics
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wise onsin

Dear Joshua:

I have been in mite a stew over Kennedy's application
for m assistantship. He has been my assistamt since he
caue here, and I know his capacities well. Dr. Demerec, who
hardly knows him, gave him the application blenk out of
kindness, knowing that he was looking eround for something
for mxt yer. I strongly advised him not to apply, but
he didn't tame my advice, and went ahead with it. Hw asked
me to write a supporting letter, which I did, after much
cogitation. I have adopted a policy of never refusing to
write such letters, and of telling the truth, but not always
the whole truth, on the assumption that perceptive examiners
will take note of gny significant ommissions. If you heve
seen my letter, you w ill know what I man. It is probably
as damning as an outright testimonial of mediocrity, but
somehow keeps me from feeling responsible for quashing some-
one's chances. Since you have asked me directly, I have no

alternative but to tell you frankly what I think of Kennedy,
and let my conscience take the consequences,

Kennedy is a nice guy, and has been a cooperative and
quite satisfactory assistant. He works hard, follows directions,
is conscientious and thorough, and usually understands the
rationale of our experiments. He&s pleasant, hes a good
sense @ humor, and is very bright in some ways. However, he
doesn't have the quality of intelligence required for udvenced
scholarship or first-rate independent thinking, or, at least,
such is my opinion. I was not surprised to learn thet his
academic record is so poor, although he has facets of brightness
that would not show up in that way. My overall judgmanhtwoculd
be that le is only a fair bet for admission to graduate
school, end a very poa one for the assiatantship. I don't
think you could expect him to do any better in graduate
course work than he did as an undergraduate, although he
has developed a feel for research that might carry him along.

He really ought to be encouraged to go in the direction of
industrial bacteriology, or some such area, where his
particular abilities would be more likely to lead to success,

Thanks for your MGB note -- a good idea, which we intend
to put into use here. We've used alumi nym caps for everything
but aerat yon tubes, but we never ha &l nice little brainstorm.

Formaldehyde is down on Demerec's list as nonmutagenic,
though I seem to remember Beale setting dubious results with
it, am not being able to make up his mind about it. I've
never worked with it myself. Would like to know more esbout what

 
you are aoing with germicides -- why only tantalizing tidbits?

L'm having a good time with lactose sectors. Sofar,
results indicate correlations between frequency of certain sector
types and the number cf Robinpw bodies per cell at the time of

UV irradiation. Like any correlational attack, it doesn't
establish a direct cause-effect connection, but nonetheless it's
encouraging. .: oO

Aside from this, 1 am busy raising my small son, who is

almost a year old and has already broken his first test tube,
Greetings to Esther. ' :
Sincerely,

}

  

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