Evelyn Witkin was a bacterial geneticist who worked until 1955 at the Carnegie Institution Department of Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor. When interviewed in June 2000, Dr. Witkin revealed the enlightened attitudes of Vannevar Bush, noting that when Bush was head of Carnegie, he indicated how disturbing it was that women had such a hard time simultaneously having a career in science and a family. In 1949 he investigated this challenge and, in response, made policy changes.