The Lederbergs’ Stanford Years, 1959–1976

Abstract

This chapter picks up the story of Esther’s life after she and her husband moved to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, in 1959, and Joshua became chairman of the newly formed Genetics Department. The Lederbergs separated in September 1966, divorced in 1967, and a year later, Joshua married Marguerite Stein, a thirty-year-old divorcee and pediatrician. Esther Lederberg collaborated with her husband less and less after the move to Stanford. When they separated, Esther was suddenly exiled from the laboratory, cut off from research funding, and facing uncertain employment prospects. After winning the Nobel Prize, Joshua began collaborating with new colleagues in chemistry, engineering, and computer science. He became an international proponent of exobiology. In 1976, Esther Lederberg became director of the Plasmid Reference Center of Stanford University. Although it was not a research position, she applied her extensive knowledge of plasmids and bacteria to curating one of the largest collections in the world. She held this position until her retirement in 1985.