Joshua Lederberg begins the three-part interview with a description of his parents, family background, and early years in New York. Lederberg knew from the second grade that he wanted to be a scientist, and he experimented at home with his own chemistry lab. Lederberg cites Albert Einstein as being a positive role model in his formative years. After completing grade school in 1936, he attended the Palestine Conference with his father in Washington, DC. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School at age fifteen. Due to age restrictions, Lederberg had to wait until he was sixteen before entering Columbia University. He spent the semester between high school and college at the American Institute of Science Laboratory. Then, he received his B.A. in biology from Columbia in 1944. While in college, Lederberg did original research with colchicine and worked with Francis Ryan on Neurospora and E. coli. At age seventeen, he enlisted with the U.S. Navy and was placed in the V-12 program, serving as a naval hospital corpsman. While working towards his Ph.D., Lederberg continued his research on bacteria and E. coli.
\n\nAfter receiving his Ph.D. in microbiology from Yale University in 1947, he joined the University of Wisconsin as assistant professor of genetics, and he expanded the University's bacteriology research. There, Lederberg first worked on salmonella strains with his graduate students. While with the University of Wisconsin, Lederberg won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1958. Lederberg concludes the interview with a discussion of the University environment during the McCarthy era, reflections on his career decisions, and thoughts on chemical information science.
","published_at":null,"updated_at":"2026-04-20T13:36:47Z","creator":[{"category":"interviewee","value":"Lederberg, Joshua"},{"category":"interviewer","value":"Bohning, James J."}],"date_of_work":[{"start":"1992-07-07","start_qualifier":"","finish":"","finish_qualifier":"","note":"Second session","formatted":"1992-Jul-07 (Second session)"},{"start":"1992-06-25","start_qualifier":"","finish":"","finish_qualifier":"","note":"First session","formatted":"1992-Jun-25 (First session)"},{"start":"1992-12-09","start_qualifier":"","finish":"","finish_qualifier":"","note":"Third session","formatted":"1992-Dec-09 (Third session)"}],"place":[{"category":"place_of_interview","value":"Rockefeller University"}],"inscription":[],"related_link":[{"url":"https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/b2773w87x","category":"related_work","label":null}],"additional_credit":[],"physical_container":null,"interviewer_profile":[{"name":"Bohning, James J.","profile":"James J. Bohning was professor emeritus of chemistry at Wilkes University, where he had been a faculty member from 1959 to 1990. He served there as chemistry department chair from 1970 to 1986 and environmental science department chair from 1987 to 1990. Bohning was chair of the American Chemical Society’s Division of the History of Chemistry in 1986; he received the division’s Outstanding Paper Award in 1989 and presented more than forty papers at national meetings of the society. Bohning was on the advisory committee of the society’s National Historic Chemical Landmarks Program from its inception in 1992 through 2001 and is currently a consultant to the committee. He developed the oral history program of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and he was CHF’s director of oral history from 1990 to 1995. From 1995 to 1998, Bohning was a science writer for the News Service group of the American Chemical Society. In May 2005, he received the Joseph Priestley Service Award from the Susquehanna Valley Section of the American Chemical Society. Bohning passed away in September 2011."}],"interviewee_biography":[{"name":"Lederberg, Joshua","birth":{"date":"1925-05-23","city":"Montclair","state":"NJ","province":null,"country":"US"},"death":{"date":"2008-02-02","city":"New York City","state":"NY","province":null,"country":"US"},"education":[{"date":"1944","institution":"Columbia University","degree":"BA","discipline":"Biology"},{"date":"1947","institution":"Yale University","degree":"PhD ","discipline":"Microbiology"}],"job":[{"institution":"United States. Navy","role":"V-12 and Hospital Corps: Ens. USNR","start_date":"1943","end_date":"1945"},{"institution":"Columbia University","role":"Research Assistant, Zoology ","start_date":"1945","end_date":"1946"},{"institution":"Yale University","role":"Research Fellow, Jane Coffin Childs Fund for Medical Research","start_date":"1946","end_date":"1947"},{"institution":"University of Wisconsin--Madison","role":"Assistant Professor of Genetics","start_date":"1947","end_date":"1950"},{"institution":"University of Wisconsin--Madison","role":"Associate Professor of Genetics","start_date":"1950","end_date":"1954"},{"institution":"University of Wisconsin--Madison","role":"Professor of Genetics","start_date":"1954","end_date":"1959"},{"institution":"University of Wisconsin--Madison","role":"Chair, Department of Medical Genetics","start_date":"1957","end_date":"1959"},{"institution":"University of California, Berkeley","role":"Visiting Professor of Bacteriology","start_date":"1950","end_date":"1950"},{"institution":"University of Melbourne","role":"Visiting Professor of Bacteriology ","start_date":"1957","end_date":"1957"},{"institution":"Stanford University. School of Medicine","role":"Professor of Genetics, Biology, and Computer Science","start_date":"1959","end_date":"1978"},{"institution":"Stanford University. School of Medicine","role":"Chairman, Department of Genetics","start_date":"1959","end_date":"1978"},{"institution":"Rockefeller University","role":"President","start_date":"1978","end_date":"1990"},{"institution":"Rockefeller University","role":"University Professor Emeritus ","start_date":"1990","end_date":"2001"}],"honor":[{"start_date":"1957","end_date":null,"honor":"National Academy of Sciences"},{"start_date":"1958","end_date":null,"honor":"Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine"},{"start_date":"1960","end_date":null,"honor":"Sc. D. (honorary), Yale University"},{"start_date":"1961","end_date":null,"honor":"Alexander Hamilton Award, Columbia University"},{"start_date":"1961","end_date":null,"honor":"Wilbur Cross Medal, Yale University"},{"start_date":"1961","end_date":null,"honor":"Proctor Medal, Sigma Xi"},{"start_date":"1967","end_date":null,"honor":"Sc. D. (honorary), University of Wisconsin"},{"start_date":"1967","end_date":null,"honor":"Sc. D. (honorary), Columbia University"},{"start_date":"1969","end_date":null,"honor":"M.D. (honorary), University of Turin"},{"start_date":"1970","end_date":null,"honor":"Sc. D. (honorary), Yeshiva University"},{"start_date":"1979","end_date":null,"honor":"Litt. D (honorary) Jewish Theological Seminary"},{"start_date":"1979","end_date":null,"honor":"Foreign Member, Royal Academy of Sciences"},{"start_date":"1979","end_date":null,"honor":"LL. D. (honorary), University of Pennsylvania"},{"start_date":"1980","end_date":null,"honor":"Honrary Life Member, New York Academy of Sciences"},{"start_date":"1981","end_date":null,"honor":"Sc. D. (honorary), Rutgers University"},{"start_date":"1981","end_date":null,"honor":"Honorary Fellow, New York Academy of Medicine"},{"start_date":"1982","end_date":null,"honor":"Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science"},{"start_date":"1982","end_date":null,"honor":"Fellow, American Philosophical Society"},{"start_date":"1982","end_date":null,"honor":"Fellow, American Academy of the Arts and Sciences"},{"start_date":"1984","end_date":null,"honor":"Sc. D. (honorary), New York University"},{"start_date":"1985","end_date":null,"honor":"M.D. (honorary), Tufts University"},{"start_date":"1988","end_date":null,"honor":"Distinguished Service Medal, Columbia University"},{"start_date":"1989","end_date":null,"honor":"National Medal of Science"},{"start_date":"1991","end_date":null,"honor":"D.Phil. (honorary), Tel Aviv University"},{"start_date":"1993","end_date":null,"honor":"Founding Member, Académie Universelle des Cultures"},{"start_date":"1995","end_date":null,"honor":"Allen Newell Award, Association for Computing Machinery"},{"start_date":"1996","end_date":null,"honor":"John Stearns Award for Lifetime Achievement, New York Academy of Medicine"},{"start_date":"1997","end_date":null,"honor":"Mayor's Award in Science and Technology, City of New York"},{"start_date":"1997","end_date":null,"honor":"Maxwell Finland Award, National Foundation of Infectious Diseases"},{"start_date":"1998","end_date":null,"honor":"Dr. Mil. Med. (honorary), USUHS"}]}],"oral_history_assets":[{"id":"08612p74k","role":"transcript","content_type":"application/pdf","url":"https://digital.sciencehistory.org/downloads/orig/pdf/08612p74k","original_filename":"lederberg_j_0107_FULL.pdf"}]}