May 21, 1951.

Db. T. M. Sonneborn,
Dept. Zoology,
Indiana University,
Bloomington, Indiana.

Dear Tracy:

I'a writing to ask you about Mr. Palmer Skaar, who should be completing
his Ph. 0. with you aow. Jo have uot heard a word from him since he féret
wrote in connection with his epplication for the NRC—Yerck and PHS fellow-
ships, but I assuss that action cn both cf these ts still nanding.

Bob Irwin and I are very auch interested fr pereving work on the dammno~
genetics of EZ. coll, and of Salmonella typhimriun, and there {is now a
wealth of material suitable for recombinstion analysis. %e now have more
than 20 crussable stralna of coli, rdpresenting ae many different somatic
and probably flagellar antigens; the Salmonella situation is equally encoura~
ging.

I was prepared to accept a fellowship beard's svaluation if Skaar won one
of these fellowships, but would like to prepare for the contingency of
fallure. It may be poesible for us to scrape up the necessary funds for a
project~reeearch assuciateship, but before doing so, I would appreciate your
judgment on Skaar's qualifications. We have no information of any kind con~
cerning him. See you at CSH-

Sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg