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Work Environment

Work Environment

Medicine Nobelist, 2007 and mentee Mario Capecchi’s description of work environment in James Watson’s lab:

“Despite the fact that James Watson was responsible for all of the resources needed to run his laboratory, if you did all of the work for a given paper,
then you were the sole author on that paper. Among all of the laboratory heads in the world, I believe that Jim Watson was among very few in implementing this policy.

“James Watson would later offer the very complimentary comment “that Capecchi accomplished more as a graduate student than most scientists accomplish in a lifetime.”
It was, indeed, a productive time, but it wasn’t work; it was sheer joy.”

James Watson was associated with many Nobel Laureates:

1. Sir William Henry Bragg, Physics Nobel 1915. Director at Cavendish. Frequently stated that physics would be helpful in biology.
2. Niels Henrik David Bohr, Physics Nobel 1922. Frequently stated that physics would be helpful in biology.
   Hermann Joseph Muller, Physiology or Medicine Nobel 1946. Geneticist, Indiana University.
3. T. M. Sonneborn, Geneticist, Indiana University.
4. Salvador E. Luria Physiology or Medicine Nobel 1969. Mentor. Microbiologist, Bacteriology Department Indiana University.
5. Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins, Co-Nobelist. Met at symposium, May 1951. Saw X-Rays of crystalline DNA. Commenced studying structural chemistry of nucleic acids and proteins.
6. John Cowdery Kendrew Chemistry Nobel 1962. Cavendish Laboratory.
7. Francis Harry Compton Crick Co-Nobelist.
8. Alfred Tissières, Swiss biochemist.
9. François Gros, French biochemist.
10. Walter Gilbert Chemistry Nobel 1980. Theoretical physicist.
11. Mario Capecchi, Medicine Nobelist 2007.