NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
CORNELL UNIVERSITY

ITHACA, NEW YORK

 

LABORATORY OF BACTERIOLOGY

May 30, 1952

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
University of Wisconsin
Madison 6, Wisconsin.

Dear Joshua:

I am very sorry to be so slow in replying to your letter
of March 7, but this last term has been a rat race and I have
been able to accomplish very little and unable to properly
take care of correspondence.

To. answer your question re the bacterlology setup at
Cornell, my official title is Professor of Bacteriology.
There are some seven or eight bacteriology. staff members who
constitute tne Laboratory of Bacteriology, which is a part
of the Department of Dairy Industry. The letterhead frequent-
ly indicates Department of Dairy Industry and sometimes one
uses Laboratory of Bacteriology letterhead; people just use
what is closest at nand.’ If you received a letter indicating
I was a Professor of Dairy Industry, it was an error. This
Seems a rather peculiar setup, but it has its virtues.Adminis-
tratively, it is quite simple and in addition,the Laboratory
of Bacterlology spends a disproportionately large share of
the profits from. the operation of the milk and ice cream
business of the Dairy Department. All in all, it works out
very well. This arrangement evolved from Sherman's primary
interest in bacteriology, although he has always been Head
of the Dairy Industry Department here at Cornell.

I enjoyed talking with Zinder very briefly at Boston,
and I wish to take this opportunity to indicate that he did
a beautiful job both on the formal paper and at the Round
Table. You have every reason to be proud of him.

Tomorrow I leave for Oak Ridge and three months of hard
work. I am rather sorry to have gotten involved in this,
but it is too late to do anything now.

idany thanks for the copy of the report and Greetings to
both you and Esther.

Sineerely yours,

Max R. Lr

MRZ: LP Professor of Bacteriology