George Beadle is credited as "the man who laid the foundation for the field of biotechnology." He studied agronomy under Frank Keirn at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1926 and a Master of Science in 1927. His interest in genetics began at Cornell, where he began his dissertation work and earned his Ph.D.
In 1931, Beadle was distinguished National Research Council post-doctoral fellow and instructed at California Institute of Technology through 1935. He served on the faculties of Harvard University, Stanford University, and the Institut de Biologie in Paris. It was then he conducted his prize-winning research: subjecting the neurospora of red bread mold to x-rays, he caused the mold to mutate. He then noted some mold ceased to produce specific organic compounds needed to survive. He added similar but different compounds and observed how the mold synthesized needed chemicals. His conclusion was that "the characteristic function of the gene was to control the synthesis of a particular enzyme. (Genetic Control of Biochemical Reactions in Neurospora, 1941) In 1946 he returned to Cal Tech as Professor and Chair of the Division of Biology.
While he was serving as the George Eastman Professor at Oxford University, Beadle learned he’d received the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine along with Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum for their discovery that genes control chemical reactions by their formation of specific enzymes.
Upon receiving the Nobel Prize Beadle quoted to his wife that he’d "rather be back home making compost."
One source credits Beadle’s mountain climbing, adventurous nature for his acceptance of the Presidency of the University of Chicago from 1961-1968. During this time he brought many distinguished and prize-winning scholars to the university, and with his second wife, Muriel, he wrote The Language of Life; "a book to help nonscientists understand dramatic scientific discoveries and appreciate the social implications of those discoveries." It earned the honored Best Science Book for Youth award in 1967.
Beadle then retired from the university to direct the American Medical Association’s Institute for Biomedical Research. Along with 35 other honorary degrees, Beadle received the Lasker Award of the American Public Health Association, the Emil Christian Hansen Prize of Denmark, the Kimber Genetics Award of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Albert Einstein Commemorative Award in Science.
Major works by G.W. Beadle include; An Introduction to Genetics (1939, with A.H. Sturtevant), Genetics and Modern Biology (1963), and The Language of Life (1966, with M. Beadle).
Former link, http://broccoli.caltech.edu/archives/bios/BeadleGW.html, (2006)
Former link, http://www.eb.com:180/nobel/micro/57_80.html,
(2006)
Written By: Joshua Anttila