EMF Mourns the Loss of Joshua Lederberg

The Ellison Medical Foundation, its Scientific Advisory Board, its staff and its more than 300 present and former Ellison Scholars mourn the loss of Dr. Joshua Lederberg. Dr. Lederberg died Saturday, February 2, 2008 at the age of 82. Dr. Lederberg was instrumental in the creation of The Ellison Medical Foundation. His great foresight and creative approach to scientific progress and his close relationship with Larry Ellison, Founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation led Mr. Ellison to fund scientists in basic research whose approach was innovative, often risky, and under-funded but which would prove beneficial toward eliminating human disease and disability.

In a series of wide ranging conversations Mr. Ellison and Dr. Lederberg discussed different fields of scholarship as a focus for the nascent foundation - "and aging was one that stuck," Dr. Lederberg said. "It was clear it was an area that was not quite integrated into what most molecular biologists were doing." The result of these conversations was the creation of The Ellison Medical Foundation, the single largest philanthropic funding source for research on aging.

Dr. Lederberg served as Chair of The Ellison Medical Foundation from its inception in 1998. The program has funded promising junior investigators as well as leading senior investigators, a number of whom, such as the late Seymour Benzer, were new to this field of research. Ellison Scholars have produced exciting new findings and have trained outstanding new investigators dedicated to research on basic mechanisms of biological aging. Dr. Lederberg, more than most of his contemporaries, realized that an understanding of these mechanisms had the potential to lead to rational preventive and therapeutic interventions for a very large number of major diseases of aging. He recruited a stellar group of fellow scientists for this effort by exhorting them “Our job is to fund the new, the unconventional and to take chances that others won’t. Our only criterion will be the best science and the best of scientists.”

Dr. Lederberg was President-Emeritus and Sackler Foundation Scholar at The Rockefeller University, New York. His life long research, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1958, was on the genetic structure and function of microorganisms. Among his many honors, he was a member of the National Academy of Science, and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1989. He long had a keen interest in international health, and was actively engaged in the building of international collaboration and collective defenses against emerging infections of global impact.

His numerous awards, in addition to the Nobel Prize, included membership in the National Academy of Sciences, The National Medal of Science, and a Research Award of Distinction from the American Federation for Aging Research.

He was particularly pleased to have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. The text of the formal citation presented at a ceremony held in the White House on December 15, 2006, succinctly summarized his amazing versatility and legacy:

“Dr. Joshua Lederberg has devoted his life to the advancement of human knowledge across a remarkable range of scientific endeavor. His work in bacterial genetics earned him a Nobel Prize and laid the groundwork for future progress in the study of genetics. He has helped develop advanced computer technology, worked with NASA in the search for life on Mars, and served as a distinguished scientific advisor to our Nation's policymakers. The United States honors Joshua Lederberg for his achievements in scientific discovery and his commitment to improving the lives of others.”
From The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Dec. 15, 2006:

The Ellison Medical Foundation will miss Josh’s vision and great humanity. We convey our most sincere condolences to his wife, Dr. Marguerite Lederberg, whom we all love and admire, and his children, Anne Lederberg and David Kirsch.

George M. Martin, M.D.
Acting Chair, Scientific Advisory Board
The Ellison Medical Foundation

Richard L. Sprott, Ph.D.
Executive Director
The Ellison Medical Foundation

Photo Courtesy of The Rockefeller University, 2001