REVISED

In view of the onerous lab routine, after the first year of the course we appointed a social chairman who organized an outing. Sometimes we would do things like the whole group would go to New York City. My wife Rosalie was a dancer, and once I convinced a doubious group of students to go to the ballet in NYC. Many of them initially didn't want to go to the ballet, but the ballet turned out to be so spectacular that several students became dance devotees after that. In addition, at other times we went into Manhattan to hear great jazz musicians or see plays. The course was hard work, but the students had fun learning new techniques and making new friends. There have been several publications in scientific journals extolling the course by former students who remember it as one of their most exciting educational experiences. As for me, I went every summer, and loved being at Cold Spring Harbor and teaching the Yeast Course with Fred Sherman. Recently, I wrote a special remembrance about teaching the Yeast Course with Fred Sherman.

Gerald Fink, geneticist, changed the field of molecular yeast biology. He is a professor of genetics at MIT, a founding member of both the Whitehead Institute and the American Cancer Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1981). After receiving his Ph.D. from Yale University, he was a part of the Cornell faculty for fifteen years and also served as president of the Genetics Society of America.

In 1976, Fink’s lab succeeded in performing yeast transformation. Gerald Fink currently researches baker's yeast and explores critical pathways in cell growth and metabolism; applications include cancer research and the development of new anti-fungal drugs. He also directs a plant research group heralded for new insights into root growth and salt metabolism.

Although Fink grew up on Long Island, it was not until he attended the 1966 Symposium that he visited Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In 1970, he began teaching the CSHL course on yeast molecular biology and continued doing so for 17 years. In 1999, he received the first honorary doctorate awarded by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.