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Genesis of the Salk Institute

The Epic of Its Founders
by Suzanne Bourgeois (Author)
Hardcover eBook
Price: $49.95 / £42.00
Publication Date: Sep 2013
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 264
ISBN: 9780520956599
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About the Book

This work is a personal account of the origins and early years of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Bourgeois crafts an engaging study that draws on her involvement with the Institute and on related archives, interviews, and informal conversations.

The volume discusses the people who founded the Institute and built a home for renowned research—leading scientists of the time as well as non-scientists of stature in finance, politics, philanthropy, publishing, and the humanities. The events that brought people together, the historic backdrop in which they worked, their personalities, their courage and their visions, their clash of egos and their personal vanities are woven together in a rich, engaging narrative about the founding of a world-premier research institution.

About the Author

Suzanne Bourgeois is Professor Emerita and Founding Director of the Regulatory Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute. She has published widely on gene regulation in numerous scientific journals.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Roger Guillemin
Preface and Acknowledgments
The Characters
Chronology

Prologue: The Greatest Generation

1. Before and after Ann Arbor
2. Doctor Polio Meets Doctor Atomic
3. Enter Leo Szilard
4. Atoms in Biology
5. What Was It about La Jolla?
6. The Pasteur Connection
7. The Spirit of Paris
8. Our Dear Kahn Building
9. Pioneering
10. The McCloy Boys
11. Biology in Human Affairs 
12. A Napoleon from Byzantium

Epilogue: Fifty Years Later

Notes
Abbreviations
References
Index

Reviews

"The author's personal acquaintance with these figures, as well as her access to correspondence and records of the Salk Institute, maker he book compelling reading for those interested in the history of modern biology."
— CHOICE Magazine
"[Bourgeois's] love and loyalty are well-placed, and I recommend this book enthusiastically."
— FASEB Journal
"Bourgeois deftly describes the relevant science in an accessible way. . . . Genesis of the Salk Institute delves deeply into the human motivations and foibles of the great men and women who shaped the institute and how the groundwork was laid for an organization that continues to shape science today."
— Quarterly Review of Biology
"Rich, immaculately researched."
— Bulletin of the History of Medicine
"A very well documented account... This important book should draw the attention of scholars to the valuable archival resources established by the Facilities Services team at the Salk Institute."
— Isis Journal, University of Chicago Press
"Jonas Salk's passion to create a palace of scientific splendor was as strong as his passion to cure polio. In Genesis of the Salk Institute, Suzanne Bourgeois reveals the inside scoop on how Salk achieved the impossible—by enticing famous scientists (Crick, Monod, Dulbecco) and orchestrating a menage a trois involving a renowned architect (Louis Kahn), the city of San Diego (a gift of ocean-view land in La Jolla), and the March of Dimes (lots of vanishing money)."—Joseph L. Goldstein, MD, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1985

"The story of the founding of the Salk Institute is a fascinating tale, not without a good measure of intrigue. Indeed, it has all the qualities of a modern scientific melodrama: chance and the weight of circumstance, powerful personalities and the clashing of egos, the tension between personal priorities and national imperatives, Nobel laureates galore—it’s all here. Suzanne Bourgeois, a fellow of the institute from the time of its founding, has produced a splendid, meticulously researched book that should be read by anyone interested in biomedical research or the history of science and medicine."—Russell Doolittle, University of California San Diego