REVISED

Every year new techniques emerged, so we added experiments to the syllabus and took some experiments out. Since we invited a different speaker each day we were exposed to the latest information and technical advances prior to publication. This infusion of the work at the cutting edge made it exciting and easy to keep up with what was going on in the field. We heard results that it might take years to get published, but we heard the latest information prior to publication. Personally, it meant I didn't have to go to quite as many scientific meetings because I had been exposed to the full panorama of the latest developments in the yeast field as a result of teaching the course latest information prior to publication.

I should note there was another aspect, which was I came with my family, my wife and two daughters, and while we were doing the teaching, they sunbathed on the beach, and so they became part of the Cold Spring Harbor community.

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.