So John Cairns. He created an experiment that I greatly admired, played a major part in my career. Which was the discovery of the DNA replication, for which I then worked on it for thirty years. John was a major figure in science for me and when I was at Princeton and I was working on DNA replication. And there were many meetings on DNA replication at Cold Spring Harbor, many of them small. And I would always come. I remember several dinners at John’s house which is the big white house on the beach; I don’t know what it’s now called. But anyway, it was a shambles, it was a complete wreck. This was before Jim Watson came and completely gutted the inside and fixed it up.

Bruce Alberts, currently Editor-in-chief of Science, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysic at the University of California and United States Science Envoy. He received A.B. (1960) in Biochemical Science from Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Ph.D. (1965) from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1966 he joined Department of Chemistry at the Princeton University and after 10 years he became professor and vice chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysic at the UCSF.

Alberts work is best known for his work on the protein complexes that allow chromosomes to be replicated. He is one of the authors of The Molecular Biology of the Cell, a major textbook in the field. He served two-six years terms as a president of National Academy of Science (1993-2005). During his administration at NAS, he was involved in developing the landmark of National Science Education standards.

Among many honors and awards (16 honorary degrees), he is Co-chair of the InterAcademy Council and a trustee of Gordon and Betty Moore Fundation.

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