UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

VIRUS LABORATORY February 5, 1957
BERKELEY 4, CALIFORNIA

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics

The University of Wisconsin
College of Agriculture
Madison 5, Wisconsin

Dear Joshua:

I was really very happy to receive your letter; first of all, because
it lent substance to the rumors that our hopes of having you with us here
in Berkeley are not just pipedreams and, secondly, because my particular
wish of forming a local "interest group" with you do not appear to be
completely one-sided from my part. I hope, furthermore, that you will
include also my name, along with that of Roger and Mike, among the list
of those on whom you can expect to rely when the need arises, not only
in scientific but also in extracurricular matters.

I don't know how the administrative setup in Berkeley compares
with that of other universities; it certainly is more complicated than
that of Caltech, but no worse than that of Tllinois, the only other two
institutions with which I am familiar (except the Institut Pasteur, about
whose administration the less said the better). I have never experienced
any trouble whatsoever in cooperating with anybody in other departments;
on the contrary, I have had a lot of help from people in departments as
remote as Chemistry, Physics or Statistics. What is true, however, is
that anybody who wants to isolate himself can do so very easily, so that
cooperation is strictly a personal, and not administrative question. Bvt
Roger and Mike can certainly reassure you also that there will be no
dack of mutual interest relations for you among people on the campus; Gs
on the contrary, there is more danger that you will be snowed under.

6, MPIAS

ee

It should hardly be necessary for me to point out that J find the
idea of a generalized microbial genetics course of the type you propose
extremely exciting and that it would be an honor for me to teach it
together with you and Ed Adelberg. Our present Bacterial Genetics course
(numbered, strangely enough,also 107) is only a one-semester, two-hour-
per-week affair, and I think that a course of the sort you mention could
easily extend for two semesters, three times a week. There would be a
little footwork necessary about the listing of the course, since, in
general, courses do not seem to be interlisted between departments here.
But this is a minor point and can, I am sure, be ironed out easily. Of
course, I am speaking only for myself and not for Ed Adelberg, whom we
better contact soon before going very far in our planning.

So, I can only tell you once more how very much we all hope that
you will favor Berkeley be accepting its offer and how much, I in
Dr. Joshua Lederberg ~2- February 5, 1957

particular, would like to cooperate and/or collaborate with you in future
years. JI am locking forward to seeing you again in April and both Inga
and I send you and Esther our warmest regards.

Your

ther S. Stent
GSS/ma