Joshua Lederberg

American molecular biologist known for his work in microbial genetics, artificial intelligence, and the United States space program. Lederberg was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine on 30 October 1958 along with Edward Tatum and G. W. Beadle. The prize was awarded on 10 December 1958 for their discoveries about recombination and organization of genetic material in bacteria.

In addition to his contributions to biology, Lederberg did extensive research in artificial intelligence. This included work in the NASA experimental programs seeking life on Mars and the chemistry expert system Dendral.

Lederberg was a full professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin 1954-1958 and at Stanford University 1959-1978.

Teaming up with Carl Sagan, his public advocacy for what he termed exobiology helped expand the role of biology in NASA. In the 1960s, he collaborated with Edward Feigenbaum in Stanford's computer science department to develop DENDRAL. In 1978, he became the president of Rockefeller University, until he stepped down in 1990 and became professor-emeritus of molecular genetics and informatics at Rockefeller University, reflecting his extensive research and publications in these disciplines.

Lederberg married fellow scientist Esther Miriam Zimmer in 1946; they divorced in 1966. He married psychiatrist Marguerite Stein Kirsch in 1968, and they had a daughter, Anne Lederberg, and his stepson, David Kirsch. He died on 2 February 2008 at age 82 in New York City.