Bancroft Launches Bioscience Program with Stellar Symposium March 12–13
Scientists at UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, and Stanford have been key players in two of the most significant events in the life sciences in the 20th century: the emerging field of molecular biology and the flourishing biotechnology industry it has spawned.
The Bancroft Library has ambitious plans to document this important development for posterity.
“With establishment of our Program in the Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, we expect to become the country’s primary archive for research into a notable scientific revolution,” says Bancroft director Charles Faulhaber.
The program will collect archives, including personal and corporate papers, correspondence, research reports, photographs, oral histories, and other primary resources and make them available for research. Scholars are intensely interested in biotechnology because of its far-reaching impact on health, agriculture,business, and society at large.
Cal molecular biologist Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., Lasker Award-winner and former editor of Science magazine who chairs the new program’s advisory committee, speaks in terms familiar to Bancrofters: “Genetic engineering will produce a second Gold Rush for the Bay Area. I’m pleased to be a part of this important initiative to document history while the key participants at Berkeley, Stanford, and UCSF are still around to tell their stories.”
Bancroft plans a formal inauguration of its Program in the Biological Sciences and Biotechnology March 12-13. The two-day event will include an exhibition in the Heller Gallery, presentation of oral histories, a University Extension course on the history and significance of DNA, and presentations by distinguished scientists and scholars. The keynote address will be given by James D. Watson who, with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, won the Nobel prize in 1962 for discovering the structure of DNA, described in his best-selling book, The Double Helix.
Nobel laureate James D. Watson will be the keynote speaker March 13 |
In 1973 Herbert Boyer (UCSF) and Stanley Cohen (Stanford) developed the technique for cloning DNA, which has led to the founding in a little over two decades of 1,200 publicly held U.S. biotechnology companies. Hundreds are located in northern California and financed by local venture capital, making the Bay Area the global leader of the industry. Examples include Chiron and Genentech, both represented on the new program’s advisory board.
Because most of the key “New Biology” scientists and other players are still active, archival documentation and oral histories can be relatively comprehensive, if they are acquired quickly. This is a special opportunity, therefore, for Berkeley to establish itself as a global center for research into the history of biomolecular science and biotechnology.
Bancroft is well situated to seize this opportunity because of its existing collections and professional expertise. The library’s History of Science and Technology Program, established in 1972, includes more than 200 archival collections focusing on the history and achievements of Berkeley scientists and academic programs, as well as industry in the Bay Area and California. They document such prominent Berkeley bioscientists as Karl F. Meyer, Wendell Stanley, Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., Marian E. Koshland, and Melvin Calvin.
Oral histories have been conducted with prominent bioscientists, including Paul Berg, Herbert Boyer, Stanley Cohen, Arthur Kornberg, and William Rutter. Additional oral histories address health and industrial issues closely related to biotechnology, including a lengthy series on the AIDS epidemic. All of this material will be available for study on the web.
Oversight of the new Program in the Biological Sciences and Biotechnology is provided by an advisory board, whose members include distinguished scientists, corporate leaders, historians, and scholars from throughout the Bay Area. Board members serve as liaisons with their respective constituencies, provide guidance, and assist with fundraising.
Symposium co-sponsors include the Bay Area Bioscience Center, College of Chemistry, College of Letters and Science Division of Biological Sciences, College Natural Resources, Cooley Godward LLP, Marco Hellman Fund, School of Public Health, Townsend Center for the Humanities, Marian E. Koshland Forum on Science, Technology, and the Humanities, and the Vice Chancellor for Research.
David Farrell is Associate University
Archivist and Curator of the History of
Science and Technology Program.
Sally Hughes is Research Historian in the
Regional Oral History Office.
Further ReadingThe Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company’s Quest for the Perfect Drug by Barry Werth (Simon and Schuster, 1994) The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA by James D. Watson (New American Library, 1991) 
The Golden Helix: Inside Biotech Ventures by Arthur Kornberg (University Science Books, 1995) Invisible Frontiers: The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene by Stephen S. Hall (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987) Making PCR: A Story of Biotechnology by Paul Rabinow (University of Chicago Press, 1996)
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Symposium – “Biotechnology at 25: History, Science, and Technology” March 12, FridayTo attend, RSVP by Feb. 26 to University
Extension, (510) 642-4111. Give the EDP code 056176 and identify yourself
as a Friend of The Bancroft Library. |
Volume 114
Spring 1999
Table of Contents
Bancroft Launches Bioscience Program with Stellar Symposium March 12–13
From the Director: Just what is it that you do, exactly?
The Business of the Humanities The “Trade”— what it is and how Bancroft uses it
The Thrill of the Chase Or, How the Biography of Poet Jack Spicer Came To Be
“The Times, They Are a’ Changin’” Bancroft Launches Free Speech Movement Archive
The Many Uses of Bancroft Collections
Joseph Esherick’s Oral History Illuminates an Architectural Icon
Where Do You “Find” Mark Twain’s Letters?
1999’s Keepsake: San Francisco in the Early 1850s
Bancroft Fellows Research Women and Space, Tobacco and Chocolate
