62 Facts About James Watson

James Dewey Watson was born on April 6,1928 and is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist.

James Watson earned degrees at the University of Chicago and Indiana University.

From 1956 to 1976, James Watson was on the faculty of the Harvard University Biology Department, promoting research in molecular biology.

From 1968, James Watson served as director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, greatly expanding its level of funding and research.

James Watson was then appointed chancellor, serving until he resigned in 2007 after making comments claiming that there is a genetic link between intelligence and race.

In 2019, following the broadcast of a documentary in which James Watson reiterated these views on race and genetics, CSHL revoked his honorary titles and severed all ties with him.

James Watson has written many science books, including the textbook Molecular Biology of the Gene and his bestselling book The Double Helix.

Between 1988 and 1992, James Watson was associated with the National Institutes of Health, helping to establish the Human Genome Project, which completed the task of mapping the human genome in 2003.

James Watson was fascinated with bird watching, a hobby shared with his father, so he considered majoring in ornithology.

James Watson appeared on Quiz Kids, a popular radio show that challenged bright youngsters to answer questions.

James Watson earned his BS degree in Zoology from the University of Chicago in 1947.

In 1947 James Watson left the University of Chicago to become a graduate student at Indiana University, attracted by the presence at Bloomington of the 1946 Nobel Prize winner Hermann Joseph Muller, who in crucial papers published in 1922,1929, and in the 1930s had laid out all the basic properties of the heredity molecule that Schrodinger presented in his 1944 book.

James Watson received his PhD degree from Indiana University in 1950; Salvador Luria was his doctoral advisor.

Originally, James Watson was drawn into molecular biology by the work of Salvador Luria.

James Watson was part of a distributed group of researchers who were making use of the viruses that infect bacteria, called bacteriophages.

Early in 1948, James Watson began his PhD research in Luria's laboratory at Indiana University.

The Phage Group was the intellectual medium where James Watson became a working scientist.

In 1949, James Watson took a course with Felix Haurowitz that included the conventional view of that time: that genes were proteins and able to replicate themselves.

James Watson then went to Copenhagen University in September 1950 for a year of postdoctoral research, first heading to the laboratory of biochemist Herman Kalckar.

James Watson wanted to explore the structure of DNA, and his interests did not coincide with Kalckar's.

The experiments, which James Watson had learned of during the previous summer's Cold Spring Harbor phage conference, included the use of radioactive phosphate as a tracer to determine which molecular components of phage particles actually infect the target bacteria during viral infection.

James Watson never developed a constructive interaction with Kalckar, but he did accompany Kalckar to a meeting in Italy, where James Watson saw Maurice Wilkins talk about X-ray diffraction data for DNA.

James Watson was now certain that DNA had a definite molecular structure that could be elucidated.

In 1951 James Watson visited the Stazione Zoologica 'Anton Dohrn' in Naples.

James Watson subsequently presented a paper on the double-helical structure of DNA at the 18th Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Viruses in early June 1953, six weeks after the publication of the James Watson and Crick paper in Nature.

In recent years, James Watson has garnered controversy in the popular and scientific press for his "misogynist treatment" of Franklin and his failure to properly attribute her work on DNA.

James Watson's accusation was indefensible since Franklin told Crick and James Watson that the helix backbones had to be on the outside.

In 1956, James Watson accepted a position in the Biology department at Harvard University.

James Watson championed a switch in focus for the school from classical biology to molecular biology, stating that disciplines such as ecology, developmental biology, taxonomy, physiology, etc.

James Watson continued to be a member of the Harvard faculty until 1976, even though he took over the directorship of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1968.

In 1975, on the thirtieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, James Watson was one of over 2000 scientists and engineers who spoke out against nuclear proliferation to President Gerald Ford, arguing that there was no proven method for the safe disposal of radioactive waste, and that nuclear plants were a security threat due to the possibility of terrorist theft of plutonium.

James Watson's third was Recombinant DNA, which described the ways in which genetic engineering has brought new information about how organisms function.

In 1968, James Watson wrote The Double Helix, listed by the Board of the Modern Library as number seven in their list of 100 Best Nonfiction books.

James Watson's book was originally to be published by the Harvard University Press, but Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, among others, objected.

In 1968, James Watson became the Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

James Watson served as the laboratory's director and president for about 35 years, and later he assumed the role of chancellor and then Chancellor Emeritus.

In 1990, James Watson was appointed as the Head of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health, a position he held until April 10,1992.

James Watson left the Genome Project after conflicts with the new NIH Director, Bernadine Healy.

James Watson was opposed to Healy's attempts to acquire patents on gene sequences, and any ownership of the "laws of nature".

In 2007, James Watson became the second person to publish his fully sequenced genome online, after it was presented to him on May 31,2007, by 454 Life Sciences Corporation in collaboration with scientists at the Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine.

James Watson was quoted as saying, "I am putting my genome sequence on line to encourage the development of an era of personalized medicine, in which information contained in our genomes can be used to identify and prevent disease and to create individualized medical therapies".

In 2014, James Watson published a paper in The Lancet suggesting that biological oxidants may have a different role than is thought in diseases including diabetes, dementia, heart disease and cancer.

James Watson thinks the root of that inflammation is different: "a lack of biological oxidants, not an excess", and discusses this in detail.

In 2014, James Watson sold his Nobel prize medal to raise money after complaining of being made an "unperson" following controversial statements he had made.

James Watson intended to contribute the proceeds to conservation work in Long Island and to funding research at Trinity College, Dublin.

James Watson was the first living Nobel recipient to auction a medal.

Besides numerous PhD students, Watson supervised postdoctoral researchers and other interns including Ewan Birney, Ronald W Davis, Phillip Allen Sharp, John Tooze and Richard J Roberts.

James Watson is a former member of the Board of Directors of United Biomedical, Inc.

James Watson held the position for six years and retired from the board in 1999.

In January 2007, James Watson accepted the invitation of Leonor Beleza, president of the Champalimaud Foundation, to become the head of the foundation's scientific council, an advisory organ.

In March 2017, James Watson was named head consultant of the Cheerland Investment Group, a Chinese investment company which sponsored his trip.

James Watson has been an institute adviser for the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

James Watson has had disagreements with Craig Venter regarding his use of EST fragments while Venter worked at NIH.

Steve Shapin in Harvard Magazine noted that James Watson had written an unlikely "Book of Manners", telling about the skills needed at different times in a scientist's career; he wrote James Watson was known for aggressively pursuing his own goals at the university.

James Watson has repeatedly asserted that differences in average measured IQ between blacks and whites are due to genetics.

James Watson discussed his view that Africans are less intelligent than Westerners.

James Watson said his intention was to promote science, not racism, but some UK venues canceled his appearances, and he canceled the rest of his tour.

An editorial in Nature said that his remarks were "beyond the pale" but expressed a wish that the tour had not been canceled so that James Watson would have had to face his critics in person, encouraging scientific discussion on the matter.

James Watson issued an apology, then retired at the age of 79 from CSHL from what the lab called "nearly 40 years of distinguished service".

James Watson attributed his retirement to his age and to circumstances that he could never have anticipated or desired.

In 2008, James Watson was appointed chancellor emeritus of CSHL but continued to advise and guide project work at the laboratory.

In January 2019, following the broadcast of a television documentary made the previous year in which he repeated his views about race and genetics, CSHL revoked honorary titles that it had awarded to James Watson and cut all remaining ties with him.