Ira Herskowitz

Ira Herskowitz (July 14, 1946 – April 28, 2003) was an American geneticist. He was noted for his work on mating type switching and cellular differentiation, largely using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism.[1]

He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology, and from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Ph.D. in 1971.[2] He taught at the University of Oregon. He moved to University of California, San Francisco in 1981, where he headed the Herskowitz lab.[3] He is credited with popularizing the phrase "the awesome power of yeast genetics" as well as being the first to use a bar sign in a pathway diagram to denote a negative influence.[4]

He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2002, the National Academy of Sciences in 1986.[5] He died in San Francisco, California on April 28, 2003 of pancreatic cancer.[1]

James D. Watson said after his passing:

He was one of the people who made U.C.S.F. the most exciting place in the world for a younger scientist to be. A talk by Ira was always fun to listen to. And he approached science with a certain degree of idealism."[1]

Awards

References
  1. Duenwald, Mary (3 May 2003). "Ira Herskowitz, a Top Geneticist, Dies at 56". The New York Times.
  2. Botstein, David (2004-02-01). "Ira Herskowitz: 1946-2003". Genetics. 166 (2): 653–660. doi:10.1534/genetics.166.2.653. ISSN 0016-6731. PMC 1470729. PMID 15020456.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-05-28. Retrieved 2010-04-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. Botstein, David (2004-02-01). "Ira Herskowitz: 1946-2003". Genetics. 166 (2): 653–660. doi:10.1534/genetics.166.2.653. ISSN 0016-6731. PMC 1470729. PMID 15020456.
  5. "Ira Herskowitz dies". vetscite.org. May 25, 2003. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
  6. "NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing". National Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 18 March 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
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