Waclaw Tadeusz Szybalski

1921 - 2020
Dr. Waclaw Tadeusz Szybalski, Professor at McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, passed away peacefully on December 16, 2020. He was 99 years old. Waclaw was born and raised in Lwów, Poland, son of Michalina Rakowska Szybalski, a crystallographer, and Stefan Szybalski, an electrical engineer.

Waclaw earned chemical engineering BS and MS degrees at the Institutes of Technology Lwów, and a doctorate in Gdansk, all during the extremely difficult period of WWII.

In 1950, Waclaw escaped Stalinist Poland and immigrated to the U.S., arriving with $35 and his hard-earned scientific education. He joined the famous Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from 1951-1955, an exciting time and place to be working in the early golden age of molecular genetics, in the company of future Nobel Prize winners, James Watson, Barbara McClintock, Alfred Hershey, Max Delbrück and Salvador Luria. Here, Waclaw met his future wife, scientist Dr. Elizabeth Hunter. They married in 1955. Waclaw then worked at Rutgers University Institute of Microbiology, from 1955-1960.

In 1960, Waclaw joined McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin Madison, rising to full Professor of Oncology in 1963. He published over 250 scientific papers over 63 years, covering bacterial genetics, mechanisms of drug resistance and radiosensitization, mutagenesis, antibiotic function, multi-drug therapy, molecular biology of bacteriophages, particularly phage lambda, genetic engineering, gene therapy, and DNA biochemistry/sequencing.

Waclaw made major contributions to our understanding of molecular biology and genetics. His prolific research output began with genetic studies of drug resistance, which led to multi-drug therapy, now widely used to treat bacterial and viral infections and cancer. His Streptomyces studies yielded information useful in commercial streptomycin production, an effective tuberculosis drug. Waclaw, along with wife Elizabeth, were the first researchers to perform gene transfer into mammalian cells (using HAT medium) and introduce the ground-breaking idea that treatment for human genetic diseases was possible through gene therapy. His work laid the foundations for several Nobel Prizes won by others.

Fellow Pole, Pope John Paul II, sought his advice on the new field of genetic engineering, during a private audience in 1981. Waclaw also strongly and publically defended the rights of free inquiry in science, including "the principle of the freedom to teach and research."

Waclaw counts many Nobel Prize winners as mentors and friends, and he himself was repeatedly nominated. In 2011, he received the highest honor awarded in Poland, Knight of the Order of Polonia Restituta, First Class, presented by the Polish President. He also received five Polish honorary doctorates.

Also a philanthropist, an annex of the Carnegie Library at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was named for him. A biography of Waclaw's long and interesting life was published by Gdansk University Press, and a film made about his life.

Waclaw was preceded in death by wife, Elizabeth. He is survived by children Jolanta Fabicka, Barbara Hunter-Sandor and Stefan Hunter, brother Stanislaw Szybalski, niece Eva Szybalski, and dear companion Dr. Zdenka Hradecna.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, at this link: https://mcardle.wisc.edu/ways-to-gi
ve/