REVISED

I spent my second sabbatical in Boston and got to know David Baltimore even better. At that time Harvard Medical School, believe it or not, did not have a Department of Genetics. So, they planned to create one and offered me the Chairmanship of what to be was their new Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. And when I mentioned this to David, he said,” Don't make a decision yet. There might be an interesting opportunity at MIT an Institute funded by Whitehead where you would have lots of independence.” I said, “What's this Whitehead thing?” To which he replied, “This guy Jack Whitehead is going to give money to build an institute at MIT.”

When I compared the two I realized that I might not feel comfortable as a PhD in a sea of MD’s at the medical school. (Maybe it had to do with the fact that I had never become a doctor.) Moreover, David Baltimore and I just clicked--we really hit it off. And so, when David offered me a position at The Whitehead Institute of MIT I accepted. I actually accepted the position before the Whitehead building was built. I was the first employee of the Whitehead Institute; there was no building yet and there were no faculty yet.

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.