Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Life Sciences Division
LBL Life Sciences Division technical records of Robert K. Mortimer, 1950-1999.
These records document biophysicist and professor Robert K. Mortimer's research in the genetics of yeast and related organisms. Using yeast cells, Mortimer studied the impact of radiation on the survival of cells and discovered that an increase in chromosomes in a cell led paradoxically to greater x-ray sensitivity. This discovery led to his famous studies of the many processes that all cells have to protect them from various physical and chemical damages to their DNA. Indeed, the so called RAD genes that were discovered in these studies are the foundation of most contemporary studies of how higher cells repair damage to their DNA. Mortimer created the saccharomyces stock center, which housed the many thousands of strains of yeast that his group created and made these strains available for genetic research. Of interest in this collection are Mortimer's notebooks from the 1950s, and his materials documenting the Yeast Genetics Stock Center.
The laboratory was founded as the University of California Radiation Laboratory in 1931 by Ernest Orlando Lawrence, a University of California Berkeley physicist who won the 1939 Nobel Prize in physics for his invention of the cyclotron, a circular particle accelerator that opened the door to high-energy physics. It is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory, operated by the University of California. The name of the laboratory has evolved since its founding: Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (1931-1958), the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (1959-1995), and currently the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1995-present).
Robert K. Mortimer, biophysicist. Ph.D., biophysics (University of California, Berkeley, 1953). University of California, professor (1956-2007), and chairman of the Department of Biophysics and Medical Physics (1984-1987).
Mortimer, Robert K.
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Life Sciences Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory.
Biophysics
Genetics.
Yeast
Mortimer, Robert K.
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
AIP-ICOS
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Archives and Records Office. One Cyclotron Road, Bldg. 69-107, MS: 69R0102, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA