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COMMONWEALTH

COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANIZATION

OHF.MS
DIVISION OF PLANT INDUSTRY
TELEGRAMS: CORESEARCH, CANBERRA P.O. BOX 109. CITY.
TELEPHONE: Ste JOA55 CANBERRA. A.C.T.

2ist January, 1957

Dr. J. Lederberg,

Assistant Professor,
Department of Genetics,
University of Wisconsin,
Madison 6, WISCONSIN, U.S.A.

Dear Dr. Lederberg,

You may have heard that M.J.D. White who was with us for over three
years as a Senior Research Fellow recently left us to return to the
United States. By now he will have arrived at Columbia, Mo.

Prior to his departure we had many discussions in our Genetics
Group of whether and if so how, we should continue seeking out the
appointment of Senior Research Fellows and, seeing what great con-
tribution White had made to our thinking and to our work, we were
unanimous that this should be so. My colleagues and I have come
to the conclusion that at the present time we would do best to try
and attract a microbial geneticist in view of the rapid .progress

in that field and especially in view of the contribution it would
make to an understanding of the fundamentals of genetics. I am
writing to you about this prior to your Australian visit firstly
since we are quite keen to make this appointment reasonably soon -
we were thinking that the appointee might come here in, say, six
months' time or soon thereafter when we expect our new laboratory
for genetics and microbiology will be completed - partly so that
you might perhaps be good enough to sean the field prior to dis-
cussing it with us.

We have a strong group in genetics, strong in numbers and, if I may
Say so without presumption, reasonably strong in ability. Most of
them are young and highly qualified. Much or most of our work is

of course in plant genetics with, but a fair proportion without,
application in plant breeding. Langridge, for example, works in
biochemical genetics of the small crucifer Arabidopsis thaliana.

Our facilities for microbiological work are good — we have a team

in microbiology which has all the usual facilities and will be housed
in the same building with the geneticists. We have a very strong
team in biochemistry, two of whom, Drs. Trudinger and Bromfield, are
also microbiologists. We hold regular seminars in various fields of
experimental biology and altogether the intellectual and scientific
atmosphere is good. The Australian National University with micro-
biology under Fenner and biochemistry under Rnnor is only half a
mile away from us and we are keeping up good contacts.

The Senior Research Fellow we have in mind would be somebody well
past the Ph.D. status who would enjoy working for a few years in
another country and among different people. It might be someone
who has had a post-doctoral fellowship and would like to see some-
thing of the world before finally settling down. The terms of
appointment would be liberal and of course all travel expenses would
be paid.

I should be most grateful if you would think about this and let me
have any recommendations that come to mind. Michael White of course
could give you furthsr information if you wish. He is well informed
of this project,as I mentioned above.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

Otel rea del

(O.H. Frankel){is,
CHIEF OF THE DIVISION