NORTON ZINDER

ZINDER--Norton D. The Rockefeller University community mourns with deep sadness the loss of our beloved colleague and friend, Norton D. Zinder, a pioneering geneticist and microbiologist whose research on the genetics of bacteria and on the properties of bacteriophages--viruses that infect bacteria--provided important new insights into the mechanisms of heredity. His first major discovery, transduction in bacteria, resulted from experiments performed while he was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, in collaboration with Joshua Lederberg. After joining Rockefeller in 1952, Dr. Zinder confirmed that transduction occurs when bacteriophages transfer DNA from one bacterial cell to another. This discovery anticipated the introduction of recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s. Dr. Zinder's discovery of RNA bacteriophages provided further evidence that RNA carries the blueprint for the manufacture of protein. Dr. Zinder, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, was the University's John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Professor Emeritus. An active spokesman on the responsibilities of scientists, he was an organizer of the historic 1975 Asilomar Conference on the safe use of recombinant DNA techniques and was a founding member of the Human Genome Organization. Dr. Zinder was a gifted teacher and mentor, and he will be greatly missed. We extend our deepest condolences to his sons, Stephen and Michael, his five grandchildren, Daniel, Benjamin, John, Adam and Matt, and all of his friends and colleagues on campus. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, President David Rockefeller, Honorary Chairman Russell Carson, Chairman Paul Nurse and Torsten Wiesel, Presidents Emeriti