1. Mutagenesis vol.2 no.2 pp. 149-150, 1987
Alexander Hollaender, In Memoriam
The following personal view of Dr Hollaender and his career was written by Dr von Borstel at the invitation of the editors.
Alexander Hollaender was born in Samter, Germany, on 19
December 1898 and died in Washington DC on 6 December
1986. He emigrated to the United States in 1921, and married
Henrietta Wahlert in 1925.
Alex attended Washington University in St Louis, graduating
in 1929. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at the
University of Wisconsin in 1931. After working as a National
Research Council fellow for three years, he went to the USSR
to repeat, in A.Gurwitsch's laboratory, the effects of the pur-
ported mitogenic radiation which was supposed to emanate from
living cells. He was unable to repeat these experiments, casting
enough doubt on the phenomenon that it has never again been
considered seriously. Alex then joined the staff of the National
Institutes of Health where he began his research on the effects
of ultraviolet radiation on living cells. In 1935, he published a
paper showing that cells can recover from damage induced by
ultraviolet radiation. In 1941, he published the data which
demonstrated that the ultraviolet radiation action-spectrum of
mutation correlated with nucleic acid absorption. This research
forms part of the grand history of the experiments which led to
the realization that the genetic material is DNA.
During World War n, Alex worked with the US Navy, pri-
marily on the use of ultraviolet radiation for the sterilization of
recirculating air. His work helped control the rapid spread of
airborne infectious diseases in submarines. His administrative
abilities and ability to plan for the future came to fruition with
the opportunity to direct the Biology Division of the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory. Alex developed the administrative principle
that there should be one technician for each scientist, and no
more. Close interaction among scientists was encouraged by plac-
ing more than one scientist in each laboratory. A technician for
each was needed so that the work could still proceed when the
scientists talked to one another. If a collaboration developed, then
the work done by both technicians would often take a new direc-
tion, and then, collaborations could begin again. If the scientist
was not developing a research line, or if collaboration was not
taking place, then the scientist would be shifted to a laboratory
where interactions and ideas were succeeding famously. If the
scientist had no ideas of his own, then at least he could be put
to work on something important. Most research institutes and
university laboratories are hierarchical, and this leaves little
chance for rapid individual development. Alex's insight on how
to eliminate a hierarchy is an important administrative
achievement.
Alex achieved much of his fame and renown as the Director
of the Biology Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The Biology Division became recognized as being among the
world's best for biological research. The Division grew during
his Directorship, from a few to over two-hundred active in-
vestigators, each cooperating and collaborating in the produc-
tion of good science. With his scientists pushing back frontiers,
Alex could then consider what else needed to be done to bring
about scientific progress.
From the vantage point of Oak Ridge, Alex saw a need to help
the colleges and universities of the US South. He initiated the
seminar series for the southern colleges and universities which
was funded and encouraged by the Oak Ridge National Labora-
tory and the Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies. The speakers
sent on these tours invariably met someone with whom they wish-
ed to collaborate, and Alex then found the funds to bring these
professors to Oak Ridge to carry out research during the sum-
mer months.
As soon as he had become Director of the Division, Alex began
the yearly biological symposia at Oak Ridge. In 1954, Alex seized
the opportunity to move the symposia to Gatlinburg when the
Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Admiral Lewis
Strauss, pleaded with Alex not to bring Linus Pauling to Oak
Ridge. Those were the days of Joseph McCarthy. Strauss believed
that Pauling's presence in Oak Ridge might fuel another Senate
investigating team. Strauss called Alex and told him that he would
give Alex additional funds so that the annual meetings could be
held anywhere except Oak Ridge. Ironically, Pauling was unable
to attend the 1955 Symposium.
In 1959, with funds Alex obtained from the Rockefeller Foun-
dation, Mary Esther Gaulden travelled to South America to
evaluate whether the seminar or symposium series could be us-
ed to relieve the isolation of scientists in Latin America. She came
back with two kinds of malaria and the enthusiastic endorsement
of yearly symposia which could bring Latin American and other
scientists together. So Alex initiated the Latin American Sym-
posia in 1961, a reasonable alternative to sending guns or nuns
to embattled Latin American republics. Also, each scientist going
to a Symposium often visited a number of Latin American univer-
sities. As the college and university programmes had done for
the US South, this programme had the effect of beginning a move-
ment of scientists between Latin America and Oak Ridge. The
success of the Latin American Symposia engendered a similar
programme for South Asia.
Alex also sought close ties with the University of Tennessee
in nearby Knoxville, and eventually was able to establish, in 1965,
the UT-Oak Ridge Graduate School of Biomedical Science.
In addition to the Oak Ridge initiated enterprises, Alex had
the gift of initiating scientific societies, such as the Radiation
Research Society, the Society for Photobiology, and the American
Environmental Mutagen Society, as well as endorsing their Euro-
pean and Asian counterparts. He then would organize the Inter-
national Associations that would designate the sites for the
International Congresses held every 4 or 5 years.
After Alex retired as Director in 1966, he kept as his prin-
cipal responsibility that of organizing international symposia.
After 6 years, an administrative official at the Oak Ridge Na-
tional Laboratory informed Alex that the National Laboratory
© IRL Press Limited, Oxford, England 149
byguestonJune29,2013pdf.highwire.orgDownloadedfrom

2. would no longer sponsor his activities, even though Alex found
the funding for these symposia from other sources. In 1973, Alex
moved to Washington DC and founded the Council for Research
Planning in the Biological Sciences. He continued with the
organization and the planning of over 40 international symposia.
Hollaender's appreciation of the arts deserves mention. At the
bottom of his trunk when he emigrated from Germany was his
most prized possession, a drawing by Oskar Kokoschka. He and
Henrietta collected drawings, prints, sculptures and paintings,
until most of the important artists of the Twentieth Century were
represented in their collection. Alex encouraged young artists
by buying their art, just as he supported young scientists by mak-
ing it possible for them to do science. Over the years, Alex and
Henrietta opened their home to thousands of visitors to see their
art collection, and lent pieces for numerous art exhibitions.
Alex has received his share of honorary degrees, medals and
awards, and memberships in honorary academies and societies
around the world. A listing of these accolades would deny his
description of himself as being a nomad or a visitor, carrying
science with him, rather than as a pyramid builder, so I shall
leave Alex as he would wish himself to be seen.
R.C.von Borstel
Department of Genetics
University of Alberta
Edmonton
Canada T6G 2E9
150
byguestonJune29,2013pdf.highwire.orgDownloadedfrom