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'lizbeth · 05-20-2014, 02:29 PM

1968: James Watson becomes director; broadens mission
In 1962, the Department of Genetics, no longer supported by the Carnegie Institute of Washington, merged with the Biological Laboratory to form "Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory of Quantitative Biology." (In 1970, the name was simplified to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.) The first years of the new institution were financially difficult, and it was only through the heroic efforts of then-director John Cairns that the Laboratory’s financial situation was stabilized. In 1968, Cairns resigned to return to research, and Nobel laureate James Watson, then a professor at Harvard University, agreed to become director while initially retaining his Harvard post.

Watson was eager to change the focus of the Laboratory to the study of cancer. One of his early accomplishments was the 1969 hiring of a young virologist, Joe Sambrook, to begin a tumor virus group that continues to this day. It was not until 1973, however, that real financial stability came to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In that year, Charles Sammis Robertson established the Robertson Research Fund with a generous gift of nearly $8 million. In 1976, Robertson donated his nearby Banbury Estate to the Laboratory, where it established the Banbury Conference Center in 1977.

Since the 1970s, the Laboratory’s studies on cancer have flourished, and there has been a large expansion and broadening of its research. The study of plants at the Laboratory was reinvigorated in the 1980s with the construction of Page Laboratory, a building dedicated to plant biology. In 1990, the program of neuroscience research at CSHL was significantly expanded with the completion of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Laboratory.

In addition to the expansion of research at the Laboratory, educational programs flourished under Watson’s directorship. Major developments in the educational mission under Watson include the establishment of a large number of postgraduate courses including the seminal Yeast Genetics course, and the founding of the DNA Learning Center in 1988, the first science center devoted entirely to educating the public about genetics. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s long tradition of education in the biological sciences culminated with its accreditation, in 1998, as a Ph.D. degree-granting institution. The founding of the Watson School of Biological Sciences in 1998 and the establishment of the CSHL Cancer Genome Research Center just two years later is a clear demonstration of how education and research have progressed together at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory since its inception.

05-20-2014, 02:29 PM	#6
'lizbeth Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Sunny San Diego Posts: 2,214	Re: Who is Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory? 1968: James Watson becomes director; broadens mission In 1962, the Department of Genetics, no longer supported by the Carnegie Institute of Washington, merged with the Biological Laboratory to form "Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory of Quantitative Biology." (In 1970, the name was simplified to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.) The first years of the new institution were financially difficult, and it was only through the heroic efforts of then-director John Cairns that the Laboratory’s financial situation was stabilized. In 1968, Cairns resigned to return to research, and Nobel laureate James Watson, then a professor at Harvard University, agreed to become director while initially retaining his Harvard post. Watson was eager to change the focus of the Laboratory to the study of cancer. One of his early accomplishments was the 1969 hiring of a young virologist, Joe Sambrook, to begin a tumor virus group that continues to this day. It was not until 1973, however, that real financial stability came to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In that year, Charles Sammis Robertson established the Robertson Research Fund with a generous gift of nearly $8 million. In 1976, Robertson donated his nearby Banbury Estate to the Laboratory, where it established the Banbury Conference Center in 1977. Since the 1970s, the Laboratory’s studies on cancer have flourished, and there has been a large expansion and broadening of its research. The study of plants at the Laboratory was reinvigorated in the 1980s with the construction of Page Laboratory, a building dedicated to plant biology. In 1990, the program of neuroscience research at CSHL was significantly expanded with the completion of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Laboratory. In addition to the expansion of research at the Laboratory, educational programs flourished under Watson’s directorship. Major developments in the educational mission under Watson include the establishment of a large number of postgraduate courses including the seminal Yeast Genetics course, and the founding of the DNA Learning Center in 1988, the first science center devoted entirely to educating the public about genetics. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s long tradition of education in the biological sciences culminated with its accreditation, in 1998, as a Ph.D. degree-granting institution. The founding of the Watson School of Biological Sciences in 1998 and the establishment of the CSHL Cancer Genome Research Center just two years later is a clear demonstration of how education and research have progressed together at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory since its inception.