Esther Miriam Zimmer Lederberg (1922–2006)

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Esther in the lab.

Joshua Lederberg Papers, NLM

The newly-formed Department of Genetics at the Stanford University Medical School, circa 1960. Chairman Joshua Lederberg is at the center, back row with his first wife, Esther, seated in front of him.

Lecturing in Japan in 1962.

Obituaries

• The Guardian, December 13, 2006
• The Scientist, December 7, 2006
• Memorial program, November 30, 2006
• Eulogy by Chair of Microbiology at Stanford, Nov. 30, 2006
• Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2006
• Stanford Report, November 29, 2006
• New York Sun, November 29, 2006

Biographical

• Diplomas (scanned copies)
• Esther Lederberg—An Abridged CV (pdf)
• Letter from the Nanneys to Josh and Esther, 1958 (pdf)
• Blog comments on Esther as part of a collaborative couple
• Joshua Lederberg Exhibit, NLM, Bethesda, Maryland, June 26, 2000 to April 12, 2001
• On Esther's musical interests

Publications (to be expanded)

• As Sole Author:
  • Zimmer, E. M., Aug. 1946, "Mutant Strains of Neurospora Deficient in Para-Aminobenzoic Acid", MA Thesis, Stanford University *
  • Lederberg, E.M., 1948. "The mutability of several lac-mutants of Escherichia coli", Genetics 33:617
  • Lederberg, E. Z., 1950, "Genetic Control of Mutability in the Bacterium Escherichia Coli", Doctoral Thesis, University of Wisconsin *
  • Lederberg, E. M., 1951, "Lysogenicity in E. coli K-12", Genetics 36:560 (Microbial Genetics Bulletin, Univ. of Wisconsin [Evelyn Maisel Witkin]) ***
  • Lederberg, E.M., 1950-51. "Lysogenecity in e. coli K-12", Genetics and Microbial Genetics Bulletin. (conf. paper) *
  • Lederberg, E.M., 1952. "Allelic relationships and reverse mutation in Escherichia coli", Genetics 37:469-483
  • E Ledeberg, 1954. "The inheritance of lysogenecity in interstrain forces of Escherichia coli", Genetics, 39:282-302, 39:978 (abstract) *
  • E Lederberg, 1955. "Pleiotropy for maltose fermentation and phage resistance in Escherichia coli K-12", Genetics, 40:581-582 (abstract) *
  • E Lederberg, 1958. "Fine structure of Gal loci in Escherichia coli K-12", Tenth International Congress of Genetics. (conf. paper) *
  • Lederberg, E.M., 1960. "Genetics and functional aspects of galactose metabolism in Escherichia coli K-12", Microbial Genetics, Tenth Symposium, Soc. Gen. Microbiol., Great Britain, p. 115
  • Lederberg, E.M., 1970. "Transfer of F' lac to rec-mutants of Salmonella typhimurium", International Congress for Microbiology X, p. 60
  • Lederberg, E. M., 1981, "The Plasmid Reference Center (PRC)", The International Plasmid Conference on Molecular Biology, Pathogenicity, and Ecology of Bacterial Plasmids, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, January 5-9, 1981, p-45. *
  • Lederberg, E.M., 1981. "Plasmid Reference Center Registry of Transposii (Tn) Allocations Through July 1981", Gene 16:59-61
  • Lederberg, E.M., 1986. "Plasmid Prefix Designations Registered by the Plasmid Reference Center: 1977-1985", Plasmid 15:57-92
  • Lederberg, E.M., 1987. "Plasmid Reference Center Reigstry of Transposii (Tn) and Insertion Sequence (Is) Allocations Through December 1986", Gene 51:115-118
• With Collaborators:
  • Hollander, A., Sansome E. R., Zimmer, E., Demerec, M., April 1945, "Quantitative Irradiation Experiments with Neurospora crassa. II. Ultraviolet Irradiation", American Journal of Botany 32(4):226-235 *
  • Lederberg, J., Tatum, E.L., Lederberg, E., 1946. "Gene Recombination in Escherichia coli", Nature 158:558
  • Tatum, E.L., Lederberg, E., Lederberg, J., 1947. "Gene Recombination in the Bacterium Escherichia coli", J. Bacteriology 53:673-684
  • Norman H. Giles, Jr.; Esther Zimmer Lederberg. "Induced Reversions of Biochemical Mutants in Neurospora crassa (pdf), (JSTOR)." American Journal of Botany. Vol. 35, No. 3 (Mar., 1948), pp. 150-157.
  • J. Lederberg, E. M. Lederberg, N. D. Zinder, and E. R. Lively, "Recombination analysis of bacterial heredity," Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol., 16 (1951) 413-443.
  • Lederberg, Joshua, and Esther Lederberg. "Replica Plating and Indirect Selection of Bacterial Mutants (pdf)." Journal of Bacteriology 63, 3 (March 1952): 399-406.
  • J. Lederberg, L. L. Cavalli, and E. M. Lederberg, "Sex compatibility in Escherichia coli," Genetics, 37 (1952) 720-730.
  • Lederberg, E.M., Lederberg, J., 1953. "Genetic studies in lysogenecity in Escherichia coli", Genetics 38:51-64
  • Cavalli, L.L., Lederberg, J., Lederberg, E.M., 1953. "An infective factor controlling sex compatibility in Bacterium coli", Journal of General Microbiology 8:89-103
  • Lederberg, E.M., Lederberg, J., 1953. "Genetic recombination in bacteria: Genetic evidence for sex in bacteria" (conf. paper) *
  • Lederberg, J., Lederberg, E.M., 1956. "Infection and Heredity", in Cellular Mechanisms in Differentiation and Growth (Dorothy Rudnick, ed.) 14th Symposium of Social Growth and Development (Princeton University Press), pp. 101-124
  • Morse, M.L., Lederberg, E.M., Lederberg, J., 1956. "Transduction in Escherichia coli K-12", Genetics 41:142-156
  • Morse, M.L., Lederberg, E.M., Lederberg, J., 1956. "Transductional heterogenotes in Escherichia coli", Genetics 41:758-779
  • Lederberg, J., Holloway, B.W., Lederberg, E.M., Burnet, F.M., Fenner, F., Best, R.J., 1957. "Symposium on Bacterial and Viral Genetics (Canberra, August 1957)", Australian Journal of Science 20:71-76
  • Mäkelä, P.H., Lederberg, J., Lederberg, E.M., 1962. "Patterns of sexual recombination in enteric bacteria", Genetics 47: 1427-1439
  • Lederberg, E.M., Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., Lederberg, J., April 1964. "Interaction of streptomycin and a suppressor for fermentation in E. coli K-12", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S. 51:678-682
  • Westley, J.W., Anderson, P.J., Close, V.A., Halpern, B., Lederberg, E.M., July 1967. "Aminopeptidase profiles of various bacteria", Applied Microbiology 15(4):822-825
  • Lederberg, E.M., Stocker, B.A.D., 1970. "Phase variation in rec-mutants of Salmonella typhimurium", Bact. Proc., p. 35 (abstract)
  • Lederberg, E.M., Brothers, L.L. and Cohen, S.M., 1973. "Molecular properties of an F-lac+-tetracycline-resistance plasmid, in E. coli and Salmonella typhimurium, XIII International Congress of Genetics", in Genetics 74:s152
  • Lederberg, E.M., Cohen, S.N., 1974. "Transformation of Salmonella typhimurium LT2 by plasmid deoxyribose nucleic acid", Journal of Bacteriology 119(3):1072-1074
  • Garfield, E., Lederberg, E. M., 1976, "Plasmids: Medical and Theoretical Aspects", Third International Symposium on Antibiotic Resistance, Castle of Smolenice, Czechoslovakia; Editors S. Mitsuhashi, L. Rosival, V. KRČNÉRY, pp 389-393 *
  • Campbell, A., Berg, D.E., Botstein, D., Lederberg, E.M., Novick, R.P., Starlinger, P., Zaybowski, W., March 1979. "Nomenclature of transposable elements in prokaryotes", Gene 5(3): 197-206
  • Campbell, A., Berg, D.E., Botstein, D., Lederberg, E.M., Novick, R.P., Starlinger, P., Zaybowski, W., March 1979. "Nomenclature of transposable elements in prokaryotes", Plasmid 1979 July 2(3): 466-473

Three generations of women scientists... Esther Lederberg as guest lecturer & 6^th grade Estee as guest auditor, at the author’s (PGA) course on “History of Women in Science”, UC-Berkeley, Spring 1998.

PGA’s family, photo taken by Esther, 1989.

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