A Research Plan
My interest in the bacterial division cycle began in 1958 while a graduate student with Robert
B. Uretz in the Committee on Biophysics at the University of Chicago. It was an unexpected
shift in direction because I had previously become fascinated with atomic and radiation
physics as a physics major at Johns Hopkins University. My penchant for physics continued
and expanded while in masters programs in biophysics at the University of Michigan and in
radiological physics at the University of Chicago. As a consequence, I entered the Ph.D. program
at Chicago, and joined Bob’s laboratory, with the intent of becoming a radiation biologist.
The shift in career plans came about after reading some of the stunning work on bacterial
Helmstetter Synchronously dividing cells
conjugation produced at the Pasteur Institute in the 1950s (e. g.,
Wollman and Jacob, 1955; Wollman et al., 1956). I had no idea
scientific research could be so exciting. So after reading everything
I could find on the topic, it was clear that I had to study
some aspect of E. coli DNA.