When McClintock got the Nobel Prize in 1983, it was on the blackboard that day at Cambridge. It was a pretty exciting time for plant geneticists. It was very important, so obviously everyone knew about Cold Spring Harbor and obviously Watson, Watson and Crick, are a defining moment in molecular biology. And, certainly, Jim [Watson] had actually come to Cambridge and visited the plant-breeding institute and you know Cold Spring Harbor was already very important.

Dr. Robert Martiennsen is a plant biologist, Howard Hughes Medical Institute-Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation investigator, and professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Martiennsen attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge, completing his BA in 1982 and continuing on to his PhD in 1986 on the molecular genetics of alpha-amylase gene families in common wheat. He received an EMBO postdoctoral fellowship with University of California, Berkeley. In 1989, he was hired as a principal investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. As a young scientist, he worked closely with Barbara McClintock. His awards and honors include the Newcomb Cleveland Prize, McClintock Prize, and Science’s Breakthrough of the Year in 2002 and the Kumho International Science Award in Plant Biology and Biotechnology (2001).