Collection Summary
Information for Researchers
Administrative Information
Biographical Note
Biographical Timeline
Scope and Content
Collection Summary
Collection Title: Gunther S. Stent Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1915-1998
Collection Number: BANC MSS 99/149 z
Creator:
Stent, Gunther S.
Extent:
Number of containers: 65 cartons, 10 tubes, 3 oversize folders
Linear feet: 92.5
Repository: The
Bancroft Library.
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Languages Represented:
English
Information for Researchers
Access
Collection is open for research, with the following exception: Box 1 sealed until 2020.
Publication Rights
Copyright has been assigned in part to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Gunther S. Stent Papers, BANC MSS 99/149 z, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Material Cataloged Separately
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
The Gunther S. Stent Papers were given to The Bancroft Library by Gunther S. Stent on August 12, 1996. Additions were made
on November 6, 1997, February 9 and July 8, 1998, and July 21, 1999.
Funding
The majority of the funding for this project was provided as a gift from an anonymous donor.
Biographical Note
Gunther S. Stent was born in 1924 in Treptow, a suburb of Berlin, where his father owned one of the largest bronze statuary
and light-fixture factories in Germany. After the Kristallnacht, he escaped from Germany, traveling first to England, and
then to the United States. He graduated in 1942 from Hyde Park High School in Chicago. He received a B.S. in 1945, and a Ph.D.
in Physical Chemistry in 1948, both from the University of Illinois. He joined the University of California, Berkeley faculty
as an Assistant Research Biochemist in 1953.
His scientific career was influenced by Max Delbrück, a quantum physicist who had trained with Neils Bohr. Delbrück was one
of several physicists who had crossed over into biology in hopes of discovering new laws of physics and chemistry. Stent joined
Delbrück's laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in 1948 as a Merck Fellow. He became an enthusiastic member
of what became known as the Phage Group, whose members pioneered the study of bacterial genetics and a new understanding of
fundamental biological processes. In 1950-1951, he worked at the University of Copenhagen and the Pasteur Institute in Paris,
where he collaborated with other ground-breaking scientists of his generation, many of whom later became Nobel Laureates.
Stent's book,
Phage and the
Origins of Molecular Biology (1966, 1992), chronicles the 30-year period prior to the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953. Stent himself has made
significant contributions in three areas: molecular biology, neurobiology, and the history and philosophy of science. Among
his writings on molecular biology, his textbook
Molecular Genetics: An Introductory Narrative (1970, 1978), is regarded as a classic. As a neurobiologist, he published over 100 articles on leech neurophysiology and
neuroanatomy, and edited
Function and Formation of Neural Systems (1977), and
The Neurobiology of the Leech (1981). Stent's writings in the history and philosophy of science, which attracted both a professional and popular readership,
include "What they are saying about Honest Jim" (1968), an essay inspired by James D. Watson's publication of
The Double Helix; and the widely discussed "Prematurity and Uniqueness in Scientific Discovery" (1972), among others.
With James D. Watson, Stent edited
A Critical Edition of the Double Helix (1980), which appended a variety of articles and reviews by his colleagues that discussed Watson's controversial account
of his discovery. Stent dedicated several books to his mentor, Max Delbrück, including
The Molecular Biology of Bacterial Viruses (1963), and
Mind from Matter : An Evolutionary Epistemology (1986)
. The latter, which Stent edited and published after Delbrück's death in 1981, is a collection of his lectures delivered at
the California Institute of Technology. In 1998, Stent published an autobiographical memoir entitled
Nazis,
Women and Molecular Biology, which centers on his early years in the United States and his return to post-war Germany in 1946-1947.
During Stent's long tenure at the University of California, Berkeley, he played an instrumental role in the process of shaping
and developing new departments and programs, leading to the establishment of the Department of Virology in 1957, and the Department
of Molecular Biology in 1963. From 1980 to 1986, he was the Director of the Virus Laboratory and Chair of the Department of
Molecular Biology. From 1987-1992, he served as founding Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. While at Berkeley,
he mentored several generations of molecular biologists and neurobiologists.
Biographical Timeline
1924 |
Born March 24, Berlin, Germany |
1940 |
Arrives in United States |
1945 |
B.S., University of Illinois |
1946-1947 |
Document Analyst, Field Information Agency, Technical (Office of Military Government for Germany [U.S.]) |
1948 |
Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, University of Illinois |
1948-1950 |
National Research Council, Merck Fellow at California Institute of Technology |
1950-1952 |
National Research Council and American Cancer Society Fellow at the University of Copenhagen and at the Pasteur Institute,
Paris
|
1951 |
Marries Inga Loftsdottir |
1952 |
Joins staff of Wendell M. Stanley's Virus Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, as Assistant Research Biochemist |
ca. 1953 |
Joins Graduate Group in Microbiology |
1956 |
Promoted to Associate Professor of Bacteriology |
1958 |
Joins Graduate Group in Genetics |
1959 |
Promoted to Professor of Molecular Biology |
1959-1964 |
Member of Genetics Study Section, National Institutes of Health |
1960-1961 |
National Science Foundation, Senior Fellow at Virus Research Institute, Kyoto University and at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge
University
|
1963 |
Publishes
The Molecular Biology of Bacterial Viruses
|
1966 |
Chairman of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Neurobiology |
|
Publishes
Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology,
with James D. Watson and John Cairns, in honor of Max Delbrück's 60th birthday
|
1966 |
Appointed external member of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany |
1968 |
Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences |
1969-1970 |
Guggenheim Fellow at Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School |
1969 |
Publishes
The Coming of the Golden Age: A View of the End of Progress
|
1970 |
Publishes textbook,
Molecular Genetics, An Introductory Narrative
|
1972 |
Chairman of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Neurobiology |
1975-1993 |
Member of Basic Research Advisory Committee, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation |
1977 |
Publishes
Paradoxes of Progress
|
|
Publishes
A Critical Edition of J. D. Watson's The Double Helix
|
1980-1986 |
Chairman of Molecular Biology and Director of the Virus Laboratory |
1981 |
Publishes
Neurobiology of the Leech,
co-edited with K. J. Muller and J. C. Nicholls
|
|
Publishes Shinri to Satori;
Kagaku no Keiji-Jogaku to Toyo (Truth and Spiritual Awakening; Metaphysics of Science and Oriental Philosophy)
|
1981-1983 |
Chairman of Joint UCB-UCSF Governing Board, Health and Medical Sciences Program |
1982 |
Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences |
1982-1985 |
Member of Committee on Space Biology and Medicine, Space Sciences Board |
1984 |
Elected member of the American Philosophical Society |
1985-1989 |
Advisory Board, Dahlem Konferenzen, Berlin |
1985-1990 |
Fellow of Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin |
1986 |
Co-chair of University of California, Berkeley-University of California, San Francisco Joint Medical Program |
1986-1989 |
Chair, Neurobiology Section of the National Academy of Sciences |
1987-1992 |
Founding Chair, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology |
1989-1996 |
Features Editor,
Journal of Neuroscience
|
1990-1991 |
Fogarty Scholar-in-Residence, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland |
1994 |
Professor Emeritus of Neurobiology and Professor in the Graduate School |
1998 |
Publishes autobiographical memoir, Nazis,
Women and Molecular Biology
|
Scope and Content
The Gunther S. Stent Papers reflect the varied functions of Stent's life as a research scientist, teacher, mentor, administrator,
editor, and author. His career spanned a period of profound changes in the life sciences, and his eclectic interests encompassed
not only science, but history and philosophy as well. His papers richly document the process of scientific and scholarly collaboration
in the developing field of molecular biology, and later in neurobiology. He was acquainted with virtually everyone in his
field, and his papers include correspondence and manuscripts from many of the leading scientists of the 20th Century, including
Werner Arber, Francis Crick, Max Delbrück, D. Carleton Gajdusek, Alfred Day Hershey, François Jacob, Niels Kaj Jerne, André
Lwoff, S. E. Luria, Jacques Monod, and James D. Watson, to name only a few.
Stent's papers demonstrate the foresight with which he preserved a wide range of documents, which give clear evidence of his
professional activities and private concerns. One particularly rich series is his correspondence. Stent's out-going correspondence
is distinguished by a clear and elegant epistolary style. In addition to Stent's main correspondence files, found in Series
1, there is more correspondence filed throughout the collection. For example, correspondence associated with a book or an
article is usually filed with that book or article in Series 2, the Publications series. The collection also contains a representative
sampling of manuscripts which were not published.
Not present in his papers are Stent's lecture notes, many of which were incorporated into chapters of his published textbooks.
The absence of systematic documentation of his teaching materials is partly offset by his collection of 57 hand-drawn instructional
wall charts. Some charts have figure numbers matching illustrations in the second edition of his textbook,
Molecular Genetics (1978). The charts were used and modified year after year. Also missing from the Stent Papers are his laboratory notes, except
for those written early in his career, between 1948 and 1952, when he held fellowships abroad.
Smaller series include University of California Departments and Committees, Professional Activities and Organizations, and
Personalia. The final series, Reprints by Others, is an extensive and valuable collection of scholarly papers authored by
Stent's colleagues, collaborators and correspondents. The collected reprints are noteworthy for their breadth as well as their
depth. When taken in aggregate, they provide an overview of molecular biology research being done internationally in the middle
decades of the 20th Century.