Michael Ashburner on Edward Novitsky
  Michael Ashburner     Biography    
Recorded: 03 Jul 2003

Edward] Novitsky who is a contemporary of Ed’s and [they] went to school together. Ed got hired at Caltech, Novitsky didn’t. Novitsky ended up in Eugene and has—I never really discussed it with Novitsky, but I think he’s felt rejected ever since. As a consequence he’s not the easiest of men to work with. He’s retired now. He’s got a little kind of historical website up if you want to read about Sturtevant and Dobzhansky.

Michael Ashburner, a leader in Drosophila Genetics and bioinformatics, received his B.A. (1964), M.A. (1968), Ph.D. (1968) and Sc.D. (1978) from the University of Cambridge, where he is currently professor of Biology in the Department of Genetics and a Professional Fellow of Churchill College.

He has been the joint head of European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and was co-founder of Flybase, the primary online database for Drosophila genetics and molecular biology, the Gene Ontology Consortium, an effort to coordinate biological databases through a defined taxonomy of gene function, and the Crete Meetings, a bi-annual event focusing on the developmental and molecular biology of Drosophila melanogaster.

Among many honors, he is the recipient of the G.J. Mendel Medal (Czech Republic 1998) and the George W. Beadle Medal (Genetics Society of America 1999).

OTHER TOPICS for
Michael Ashburner
LIFE IN SCIENCE
GENOME RESEARCH
BIOTECHNOLOGY
JAMES D. WATSON
CSHL