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NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- President George W. Bush today named Evelyn M. Witkin, Barbara McClintock Professor Emerita at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, a recipient of the 2002 National Medal of Science, the nation's highest science and engineering honor.
Witkin, a Princeton resident, is one of eight honorees selected and the 30th woman to receive the medal, which will be presented at a White House ceremony Nov. 6.
"The ideas and breakthroughs in fundamental science and engineering by these extraordinary pioneers have influenced thousands of other researchers," said Rita Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). "We now see the daily evidence of the tremendous advancements in technological capabilities, human health and vast new knowledge within our physical world due to these heroes of science we celebrate today," Colwell said.
The National Medal of Science, established by the 86th Congress in 1959 and administered by the NSF, honors the impact of individuals on the present state of knowledge in the physical, biological, mathematical, engineering, social and behavioral sciences. Not including the 2002 recipients, the medal has been awarded to 409 distinguished scientists and engineers, including three previous Rutgers winners.
"The National Medal of Science recognizes the tremendous contributions Evelyn Witkin has made to biological research," said Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick. "It is a mark of personal accomplishment and distinction. Rutgers, her home for two decades, is immensely proud of her achievements."
Witkin was largely responsible for creating the field of DNA mutagenesis and DNA repair, which focuses on how mutations, most of which are unhealthy, occur in DNA and how they may be corrected. Her work, which furthered our understanding of the genetic response to harmful environmental factors such as radiation, has played an important role in the biochemical sciences and in clinical radiation therapy for cancer.
"I had no idea that anything like this was possible. I am very gratified by the award," said Witkin. "That I was nominated by colleagues means a lot to me. Having been in the field of genetics since the mid-1940s was an enormous privilege and the most exciting experience that I could imagine having in professional life."
Witkin's investigations into DNA repair led to her discovery of genes that can heighten bacterial resistance to DNA-damaging agents. In 1973, while on the faculty of Rutgers' Douglass College, she defined the E. coli "SOS Response," a system that is triggered by DNA damage. This system activates at least 40 genes that promote DNA repair and enhances individual and population survival. We now know that humans and many other organisms use the same kinds of DNA repair mechanisms.
Witkin came to Douglass College in 1971 and taught in the department of biology for 12 years. She then spent eight years on the faculty of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology until her retirement in 1991.
"It is wonderful that Evelyn has won this award," said Joachim Messing, director of the Waksman Institute. "We are proud that Evelyn's work was recognized at the highest levels and therefore adds distinction to the institute and the university."
David Axelrod, now a professor in Rutgers' department of genetics, was a colleague of Witkin's at Waksman. "Evelyn Witkin was a pioneer in her field and a model for many of us younger researchers," said Axelrod. "She was an inspiration to other scientists and students, teaching by example."
Previous Rutgers recipients of the National Medal of Science are Felix E. Browder (1999), university professor of mathematics, Martin D. Kruskal (1993), the David Hilbert Professor of Applied Mathematics, and James L. Flanagan (1996), vice president for research and director of the Center for Advanced Information Processing.
Additional Biographic Information
Evelyn M. Witkin
Barbara McClintock Professor Emerita
Rutgers University
Summary of Achievements
Dr. Evelyn Witkin is widely known for her ability to clearly define and characterize complex genetic phenomena as well as her ability to excite and support others in the use of genetics as a powerful tool for dissecting biological problems. She is a gifted researcher and highly effective teacher. Her contributions to education have made major impacts both at the Downstate Medical Center of the State University of New York and at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Dr. Witkin has been a pioneer in the field of DNA mutagenesis and DNA repair, which has become very important in the biochemical sciences and in cancer biology. For over 40 years, Dr. Witkin not only made seminal discoveries but also played an absolutely crucial role in defining and establishing the field of "Biological Responses to DNA Damage".
Dr. Witkin's work at Cold Spring Harbor in the late 1940s began at a time when experiments first demonstrated that bacteria could repair the damaged DNA. She bolstered the notion of a repair process in bacteria by observing that slowing the growth rate of bacteria cultured in the dark prevented the accumulation of a class of ultra-violet (UV)-induced mutants. These pioneering experiments eventually led her to speculate on the existence of an enzymatic "dark repair" mechanism complementary to photorepair by visible light. She was then able to isolate a mutant defective in this process.
In 1955 Dr. Witkin moved to the Department of Medicine at Downstate Medical Center in the State University of New York where she remained until 1971. Working alone, she began the experiments that eventually culminated in the idea that bacteria carry out a multifaceted response to UV irradiation, which includes not only DNA repair, but also a filamentation of cells, UV induced mutagenesis, and prophage induction. Her initial experiments were published in several papers that were prescient and foreshadowed the solution to the regulatory puzzle that they created. A decade later, it was shown that DNA damage generates a signal sensed by a widely acting regulator, RecA; the latter then proceeds to facilitate the activation of the genes that program the multiple response to DNA damage that Dr. Witkin first documented.
In 1971 Dr. Witkin accepted a position at Rutgers University, where her research efforts continued to lead her to an understanding of the cellular response to UV. Within several years, Dr. Witkin and Dr. Miroslav Radman, Harvard University, concluded that the DNA repair phenomenon that she had described and Radman's SOS replication process could be traced back to common control mechanisms. She continued to study various aspects of the SOS response until she retired in 1991 to pursue another life passion -- the study of poetry.
Dr. Witkin has received many awards recognizing her extensive accomplishments. Among these are election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1977, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the 1982 American Women of Science Award for Outstanding Research, and the 2000 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal of the Genetics Society of America. She is on the Advisory Board of the Molecular Biology Department at Princeton University and has active connections with many of the young people at the University, providing them with encouragement and wisdom. She is also involved in science education in the public schools.