Event ID # 91007
Date:
Thursday, December 10, 2009
 Time:
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Event:

"Gender, Race, and Credit for Collaborative Couples: The Lederbergs and the 1958
Host:

Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University
Location:

(Waltham, MA)   Google Map
515 South Street, Waltham, MA
Contact:
Rosa Di Virgilio Taormina		 Phone:
Email:
taormina@brandeis.edu
Website:
http://go.brandeis.edu/wsrc
Price:
Free
Full details:
This talk examines why the female spouse in a collaborative couple of scientists was excluded from most awards received by her co-author male spouse, especially the 1958 Nobel Prize. Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg and Joshua Lederberg collaborated on many discoveries in bacterial genetics in a decade of marriage preceding that Award. Abir-Am will discuss the impact of the ideology of domesticity after WW2, the racism and anti-semitism in the 1950; and the research strategies and mistakes made by both partners, as well as by the Nobel committee.