"Joshua Lederberr
A Life in Science"

Dr. Alexa T. McCray
Harvard Medical School

April 18, 2006

    2:@0-3:15 P.M.
Lister Hill Center Auditorium
National Library of Medicine

A lecture in celebration
of the opening of the
Joshua Lederberg Papers

and the completion of the
Lederberg Profiles in Science@
     Web exhibit
http: / /profiles. nlrn . nih.g ov/ BB /

Abstract

As an elementary student, Joshua Lederberg already had
scientific aspirations. While other children may have looked to
sports or entertainment figures as their idols, Lederberg's idol
was Albert Einstein. His most treasured gift at his coming of
age ceremony (Bar Mitzvah) was a chemistry textbook, and as a
young teenager, he read, for him a pivotal book, Paul de Kruif`s
Microbe Hunters. Joshua Lederberg not only conducted Nobel
Prize winning research (for his work on bacterial genetics), but
he also took seriously his responsibility as an educated citizen.
For many years he wrote a column in The Washington Post that
took on the scientific issues of the day and made them
accessible to the public, and today he continues to be an ardent
proponent of open access to scientific information. His
insatiable appetite for scientific knowledge has taken him on
by-roads to artificial intelligence, exobiology, and, more
recently, biotechnology. The National Library of Medicine's
Profiles in Science Web site makes the papers of this prolific
and public-minded scientist available for all to use. This talk
will explore some of those materials, illustrating Joshua
Lederberg's legacy to science and humanity.

Dr. McCray is Lecturer on Medicine, Harvard Medical School,
former Director of the Lister Hill National Center for
Biomedical Communications and former Project Director of
Profiles in Science.

A computer will be available in the Visitors Center for
browsing the Joshua Lederberg online exhibit.