The symposia were the highlight of the scientific calendar there. I used to enjoy them for many reasons not the least was that this procession of famous people came through. People that many of whom are dead now. As I look back from a new century, many of them have gone. But they were icons at the time. And I thoroughly enjoyed rubbing shoulders with these people—having an opportunity to speak to them if I was lucky enough to be introduced to them. And really feel that I was at the very cutting edge of what was going on scientifically. And Cold Spring Harbor has always provided that opportunity. If something has been discovered that is important it’s going to reach the ears of Cold Spring Harbor within a matter of days. And the symposia that were run were the formal opportunity for those presentations and I look back on those with great fondness. Not just for the symposia but also the opportunities during tea breaks, coffee breaks and banquets to meet all these people. And I think that if I might say that’s part of the foundation stone on which careers are built. That these people remain as colleagues for years and years to come.

Ashley Dunn is currently a Senior Consulting Scientist and member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Cryptome Pharmaceuticals Ltd., an Australian biotech company. He also serves on Australia’s Gene Technology Advisory Committee. He is the former Head of Molecular Biology in the Melbourne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

He came to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1976 to work with Joe Sambrook as a postdoctoral fellow and eventually became a junior faculty member.

His research has been concentrated on mammalian growth factors and the regulators responsible for the production of white blood cells in mice and men. He co-invented a mammalian blood cell regulator (GM-CSF), and his lab was the one of the first to establish gene targeting in the development of human diseases such as cancer.