Well, on a very hot and steamy evening—my wife had never been here, so first from driving out from the airport in this miserable hot weather, put up in one of the old cabins and she was quite miserable… She really wondered about my sanity and my decision to come here, much against her knowledge about the other places that I might have gone. She had great doubts about this place. She was won over quickly, however…

We were initially in a cabin. Cabin D. It was one of the old cabins, not the new ones. We were to move into the Stables but they of course weren’t quite ready yet. So then we moved to Williams for a while, where it was nice. Anything that got spilt on the floor it just ran downhill out to the porch and disappeared. Interesting place.

Raymond Gesteland, biologist, has made progress in describing essential mechanisms for controlled gene expression. His research on recoding provides insight into replication of RNA viruses such as HIV and the genetic code. Gesteland also concentrates on ribosome function and response to mRNA signals.

He received a master’s degree in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University. After working at Alfred Tissières Laboratory in Geneva, in 1967, Gesteland arrived at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to work under Jim Watson as Assistant Director for Research.

Gesteland is currently Vice President for Research, Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, and Chairman of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Utah.