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Fred Sherman (1932–2013)

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Fred Sherman (1932–2013) PERSONAL NEWS Fred Sherman (1932–2013) Fred Sherman, an internationally famous istry and Biophysics from 1982 to 1999 several hours at a stretch. These lectures yeast geneticist passed away on 16 Sep- (till his retirement). Even after retire- at Cold Spring Harbor were not only tember 2013 at the age of 81. He was ment, Sherman was quite active in sci- attended by students who had registered born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, in ence and used to serve the scientific for this course, but also by well-known 1932. Sherman enrolled at the University community with the same vigour and personalities such as Jim Watson, Alfred of Minnesota with chemistry major and energy as before. Hershey, Barbara McClintock, Max Del- earned his Bachelor’s degree (B A) in bruk and many others. 1954. Then he moved to the University Sherman published more than 250 of California, Berkeley, for graduate papers in reputed journals. He served on programme in biophysics. Here, he met the editorial board of numerous interna- one of the leading yeast geneticists, tional journals. Starting from 1962 to Robert K. Mortimer, who introduced 2013, during his long and successful ca- Sherman to the beauty of yeast genetics reer, Sherman taught a large number of and its power in unveiling complex bio- graduate (Ph D) students and also trained logical processes. Sherman worked with many postdoctoral fellows from several Mortimer on the induction of – mito- countries around the world. Almost all chondrial mutants at elevated tempera- the people trained by Sherman became ture in the baker’s yeast Saccharomyces leaders in their respective fields. Sherman cerevisiae and earned his Ph D degree in was a serious scientist and never com- biophysics in 1958. After completing his Sherman was recognized for his enor- promised on the quality of the work he doctorate, Sherman joined Hershel Ro- mous contributions in the area of genet- pursued. He was also known for his man’s laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow ics and molecular biology and was strong sense of humour. In Fink’s words at the University of Washington, Seattle. elected to the National Academy of Sci- ‘I never saw Fred Sherman in a sober He carried out work on recombination in ences in the United States in 1985. He moment. He was always intoxicated by yeast during his stay in Roman’s labora- also received several prestigious awards, his own slapstick sense of humor’ (in tory. Subsequently, he moved to Labora- including the Wander Memorial Lecture- The Early Days of Yeast Genetics). torie de Gènètique Physiologique at the ship in 1975, the Arthur Kornberg Sherman was not only a great scientist, Centre National de la Recherche Scienti- Research Award in 1999, the George W. but he was also a superb human being. fique (CNRS) in Gif-sur-Yvette, France Beadle Award and the Lifetime Achieve- He used to help the students when they in 1960. There he worked with well- ment Award from the Genetic Society of were in trouble. It is indeed difficult to known geneticist Boris Ephrussi on res- America in 2006. He was also elected as describe a person like Fred Sherman piratory deficiency of yeast. AAAS Fellow in 2006. His outstanding completely. He will be greatly missed by Sherman returned to the USA in 1962 work on yeast genetics got further recog- his colleagues throughout the world as and joined the faculty at University of nized when Sherman was appointed as well as the entire yeast community. But Rochester. Here he initiated a strong and chairman of the Genetics Division of the he has left a legacy – of using, develop- vibrant research programme on respira- National Academy of Sciences in 2000 ing and further promoting the more tory-deficient yeast mutants and discov- and held this position till 2003. meaningful use of S. cerevisiae to under- ered the cytochrome c1 (CYC1) gene and Sherman was one of the fathers of stand biology. We, the students and fol- its important mutant cyc1-1. Sherman modern yeast genetics. He developed lowers of Sherman devote our efforts to developed a powerful genetic method for many independent and indigenous meth- work on biological problems using S. screening and detection of cyc1 mutants ods of yeast genetics and molecular cerevisiae – the best way we can pay and their functional revertants, and the biology and formulated the media com- tribute to this legendary scientist. success of this genetic system led to nu- position for the selection of different mu- merous studies on genetics and molecu- tants and their characterization. He was ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. We thank Emily lar biology of yeast and other eukaryotes. one of the few yeast geneticists who Boynton, Media Section, University of Roch- ester for providing the photograph of Sherman. The nonsense codons TAA and TAG and brought S. cerevisiae to the forefront of 1, the initiation codon ATG were deter- research. He was responsible for training M. ANAUL KABIR * 2 mined by Sherman from amino acid a large number of yeast geneticists and BISWADIP DAS alterations of iso-1-cytochrome c. The molecular biologists in his laboratory at 1 functional assignments of such codons the University of Rochester and also at Molecular Genetics Laboratory, were done for the first time in a eu- the Cold Spring Harbor. Sherman along School of Biotechnology, karyotic organism in Sherman laboratory with Gerald R. Fink ran the Cold-Spring National Institute of Technology, to establish the rules of translation in eu- Harbor yeast course for 17 long years Calicut 673 601, India 2 karyotes. Sherman remained a faculty (1970–1987) and many well-known sci- Department of Life Science and member of the University of Rochester entists were produced through rigorous Biotechnology, Medical Center from 1962 to 16 Septem- and thorough training. Though Sherman Jadavpur University, ber 2013, the last day of his life. He was used to start a lecture with the word Kolkata 700 032, India chairman of the Department of Biochem- ‘briefly’, his lectures would run for *e-mail: [email protected] 706 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 107, NO. 4, 25 AUGUST 2014 .
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