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I came to Yale in 1955 as a Professor of Plant
Physiology in the old Department of Botany, having
previously been an Associate Professor at the
California Institute of Technology. I was the
first occupant of the new Gibbs Laboratory, occupying
the entire south wing of the fifth floor. Within
two years, this floor was full, with 10 grad students,
3 postdocs and 2 technicians. By the time I faced
mandatory retirement at age 70 in 1990, I had
overseen 24 Ph. D. students and 67 postdocs from
16 countries. In 1961, working with Edgar
J. Boell, I was instrumental in fusing Botany
with Zoology to form the Department of Biology,
and planned the first unified Biology course taught
by the new Department. In 1966-7, I served as
President Kingman Brewster's Director of the Division
of Biological Sciences and in 1985-8, was Chairman
of Biology under Bart Giammati. I opposed the
dismemberment of Biology into MCDB and EEB,
but note with pleasure the recent strengthening
of organismal biology in EEB.
Since retirement, I have been associated with
the Institution
for Social & Policy Studies, and serve
on its Executive Committee for the Interdisciplinary
Bioethics Project. For 12 years, I taught College
Seminars in Bioethics, and for the last two years,
have taught a new introductory bioethics course
in Yale College, which in 2003-4, attracted more
than 460 students, making it one of the largest
courses in Yale College.
My research concerned plant photobiology, hormones,
protoplasts and polyamines. I have published more
than 320 papers in refereed journals, as well
as more than 50 articles on public affairs, several
successful textbooks of plant physiology and two
edited anthologies of papers in bioethics. My
major research contribution was to suggest and
obtain the first evidence for the role of riboflavin,
rather than carotene, as the photoreceptor for
phototropism (Amer. J. Bot. 36: 773-780. 1949;
PNAS 35: 10-17, 1949; Science 111: 619-624, l950).
This suggestion has recently been proven by others.
Because of my interest and concern with the
consequences of the use of Agent Orange for defoliation
operations during the Vietnam War, I travelled
frequently to Vietnam, and in 1971, became the
first scientist invited to the People's Republic
of China. I met three heads of state, including
Premier Chou En-lai of China, and through his
intervention, worked for a summer on a Chinese
agricultural commune, about which I later wrote
a book.
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