Esther Lederberg - Professional Honors

Professional Honors

• 1956 Society of Illinois Bacteriologists: Pasteur Award (with Joshua Lederberg; the first time the award was ever given to a team of researchers)
• 1969 American Cancer Society Dernham Postdoctoral Fellowship in Oncology (Senior Fellowship)
• President of the Stanford Chapter of Sigma Xi
• Memberships in a number of other scientific societies; frequent invitee to Gordon Conferences; etc.

For a complete list of Esther Lederberg's professional memberships, see .

In 2010, Stanford University dedicated part of Clark Walk to Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg. (Clark Walk is a series of granite blocks that memorialize various Stanford scientists and events in the history of the Stanford School of Medicine, located between the Sherman Fairchild building and the Li Ka Shing Pavilion.)

A black granite block shows a photograph of Esther Lederberg in the laboratory, a page from one of her notebooks, and quotes from two close colleagues:

Len Herzenberg:

Joshua and Esther Lederberg established their own group and worked on bacterial genetics. Studying with Edward Tatum, they discovered sex, or genetic exchange in bacteria, which won him the Nobel Prize shortly after he arrived at Stanford. The process they developed became a way to transfer genetic information between bacteria.

Stanley Falkow:

Esther Lederberg developed a method of replica plating using velveteen attached to a piston ring. The rings are pressed onto bacterial colonies and then stamped onto a series of plates. She advanced many of the early lab procedures and also discovered lambda phage, which became a widely used tool in microbial genetics.

In this memorial block, Stanford University explicitly attributes its information to the Esther Lederberg Memorial Web Site, "http://www.estherlederberg.com".