Oral Histories

Interview of Lester F. Lau

Subtitle:
Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences: Lester F. Lau
Series:
Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences
Topic:
Science, Medicine, and Technology
Interviewer:
Hathaway, Neil D.
Interviewee:
Lau, Lester F.
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Length:
x, 258 leaves : portrait, index.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Series Statement:
Interviews in this series, sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, document the research of "outstanding scientists from quality institutions" chosen by the Pew Scholars Program to receive four-year stipends.
Abstract:
Childhood in Hong Kong; family moves to Brooklyn; attends City College of New York; decides to pursue a career in science; enters graduate school at Purdue University; pursues molecular biology at Cornell University; research in Ray Wu's laboratory; works with Jeffrey W. Roberts; studying DNA transcription and termination; studies yeast genetics in Gerald R. Fink's lab; creates a double-mutation yeast strain; postdoctorate in molecular biology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Daniel Nathans's lab; genesis and impact of Nathans's work on simian virus 40; receives a Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship; studying cell cycle regulation; differential hybridization; the politics of scientific publishing; peer review; grant review sections; status of women and minorities in science; reasons for leaving Nathans's lab; accepts a position at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago; setting up a new lab; role of basic research in a medical school; teaching duties of research biologists; moves to the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago; sequencing cDNAs; determining gene function; learning to make transgenic mice; plans to explore a genetics approach to isolating immediate-early genes.