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Cairns, John, 1923-

 Person

Biography

John Cairns, physician and molecular biologist, received his degree in medicine from Oxford University in 1946. Cairns worked as a virologist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, at the Virus Research Institute in Entrebbe, Uganda and at the Curtain School of Medical Research in Canberra.

From 1960-61, Cairns spent his sabbatical at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory under Alfred Hershey. He returned to serve as director of the Lab from 1963–1968, while continuing his research on DNA replication and initiating the technique autoradiography. During Cairns’s tenure, he saw Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory officially form from an amalgamation of the Long Island Biological Association’s Biological Laboratory and the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Department of Genetics. Cairns remained a staff member until 1972 when he was appointed head of the Mill Hill Laboratory of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Cairns subsequently worked at the Harvard School of Public Health until his retirement in 1991. He then returned to Oxford and published Matters of Life and Death: Perspectives on Public Health, Molecular Biology, Cancer, and the Prospects for the Human Race in 1997. Cairns passed away in 2018 at the age of 95.

Found in 78 Collections and/or Records:

Cairns, John (3 of 3), 1968 - 1992

 File — Box CR08, Folder: 02
Identifier: JDW_02_02_0271_001
Scope and Contents From the Series: The correspondence series includes handwritten and typed letters, carbon copies, postcards and notes dating from 1916-2012. The bulk of the material covers Watson’s sojourn in Cambridge (1951-1954), Harvard (1956-1975) and as Director (1968-1994), President (1994-2003), Chancellor (2003-2007), and Chancellor Emeritus (2007-2011) of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Watson’s career at the Copenhagen Crystallography Lab and time at California Institute of Technology are...
Dates: 1968 - 1992
Found in: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives / James D. Watson Collection / Record Group II: Personal Papers (JDW/2) / Series II: Correspondence (JDW/2/2)

Cairns, John (3 of 3), 1958 - 2019

 File — Box 2, Folder: 2
Identifier: MSM_b01_f15_001
Scope and Contents From the Sub-Series:

Of particular note in this subseries is the correspondence between Meselson and Jean Weigle (University of Geneva) in which they discuss Meselson's experiments on transduction (1959-1962).

Dates: 1958 - 2019
Found in: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives / Matthew Meselson Collection / Record Group I: Professional Materials / Series I: Correspondence / Sub-Series I: General

Cairns, John (Includes 1966 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium), 1963 - 1992

 File — Box CP03, Folder: 2
Identifier: SB_01_01_0097_001
Scope and Contents From the Series: The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates: 1963 - 1992
Found in: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives / Sydney Brenner Collection / Record Group I / Series I: Correspondence (SB/1) / Sub-Series I: Correspondence - Personal (SB/1/1)

Cairns, John (Includes typescripts), 1961 - 1963

 File — Box RP02, Folder: 06
Identifier: JDW_02_10
Scope and Contents From the Series: Extensive collection consisting of over 2,000 offprints and reprints, mostly signed by James Watson (some annotated), some inscribed and signed by various scientific authors. Also included are galley proofs, and photocopies of research papers written by scientists, including James Watson, Sydney Brenner, Max Delbruck, Rosalind Franklin, Al Hershey, Linus Pauling and Max Perutz. The material includes a number of papers by his students and colleagues at Harvard,...
Dates: 1961 - 1963
Found in: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives / James D. Watson Collection / Record Group II: Personal Papers (JDW/2) / Series X: Reprints (JDW/2/10)

Cairns, Witkin & Martienssen Clips

 Item
Scope and Contents From the Collection: The Oral History Collection contains interviews conducted with 200 scientists within the fields of molecular biology, genetics, and the life sciences between 1990 and 2024. The interviewees provide first-hand accounts of their experiences in the fields of modern biology, such as neuroscience, cancer, genetics, plant genetics, genomics, biotechnology and others, from the 1940s through the 2000s. The collection contains audio and video recordings, as well as transcripts of interviews....
Dates: 1990 - 2025
Found in: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives / Oral History Collection / Talking Science Interviews

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Collection

 Collection
Identifier: CSHL
Abstract

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Collection contains papers of the members of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and The Long Island Biological Association from the years 1942-2017. The materials consist of correspondence, meeting notes, financial papers, fundraising papers and development plans. The collection is divided into 6 series: Series 1: Administration; Series 2: Development; Series 3: Financials; Series 4: Fundraising; Series 5: Legal and Series 6:Science and Research.

Dates: 1942-2017
Found in: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives

Congressional Workshop: Carcinogenesis - From the Environment to the Gene, 1982-11-19 - 1982-11-21

 File
Dates: 1982-11-19 - 1982-11-21
Found in: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives / Banbury Conference Center Audio Collection, 1989-1995

Copy of article: John Maddox comes to Wollongong, 27/11/1989

 Item — Box CP16, Folder: 32
Identifier: SB_1_1_647_11
Scope and Contents From the Series: The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates: 27/11/1989
Found in: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives / Sydney Brenner Collection / Record Group I / Series I: Correspondence (SB/1) / Sub-Series I: Correspondence - Personal (SB/1/1) / Steele, E. J.

Copy of article: Somatic hypermutation: evolution in a day, by Jeremy Knibbs, 1990

 Item — Box CP16, Folder: 32
Identifier: SB_1_1_647_9
Scope and Contents From the Series: The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates: 1990
Found in: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives / Sydney Brenner Collection / Record Group I / Series I: Correspondence (SB/1) / Sub-Series I: Correspondence - Personal (SB/1/1) / Steele, E. J.

Copy of letter from E. J. Steele to the Editor, published in Immunology Cell Biology, 1989

 Item — Box CP16, Folder: 32
Identifier: SB_1_1_647_5
Scope and Contents From the Series: The Correspondence series consists of incoming and outgoing handwritten and typed letters, carbons, postcards, faxes, and telegrams generated during Sydney Brenner's career. The bulk of this series covers the late 1940s to the 2000s. Correspondents include over 30 Nobel laureates, as well as biochemists, geneticists, students, publishers, and others. Highlights of the collection include the correspondence from Francis Crick, with whom Brenner shared an office for 20 years. Topics covered...
Dates: 1989
Found in: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives / Sydney Brenner Collection / Record Group I / Series I: Correspondence (SB/1) / Sub-Series I: Correspondence - Personal (SB/1/1) / Steele, E. J.

Additional filters:

Type
Archival Object 72
Collection 4
Unprocessed Material 2
 
Subject
Congresses as Topic 12
DNA Replication 7
Travel 7
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 5
DNA 5
∨ more
Escherichia coli 4
Experiments 4
Manuscripts as Topic 4
Mutagenesis 4
Science Study and teaching 4
Bacteriophages 3
Genetics 3
Human Genome Project 3
Molecular Biology 3
Publishing 3
Bacterial genetics 2
Centrifugation, Density gradient 2
Cold Spring Harbor (N.Y.) 2
Communication in science 2
Genetic Code 2
Genome, Human 2
Laurel Hollow (N.Y.) 2
Meetings 2
RNA 2
Thank-you notes 2
Viruses 2
Women in Science 2
Writing 2
X-ray crystallography 2
Adenoviruses 1
Administrative Records 1
Agent Orange 1
Annual Reports 1
Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA Molecules. 1
Awards and Prizes 1
Bacteriophage lambda 1
Banbury Center 1
Base Sequencing 1
Biochemistry 1
Biological weapons 1
Biology--Education 1
Biotechnology Patents 1
Bloomington (Ind.) 1
Boston (Mass.) 1
California Institute of Technology 1
Cambridge (England) 1
Cambridge (Mass.) 1
Cambridge University 1
Cancer 1
Cancer--Research 1
Chemical warfare -- Research -- United States -- History -- 20th century 1
Chemistry 1
Chicago (Ill.) 1
Chromatography 1
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Press 1
Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology 1
Copenhagen (Denmark) 1
Correspondence 1
DNA Repair 1
DNA, Recombinant 1
DNA--Structure 1
Drosophila 1
Drosophila Genetics 1
Ekaterinburg (Russia) 1
Employment 1
Family 1
Financial Records 1
Fund raising 1
Fund raising – research 1
Genomics 1
Grant Proposals 1
Great Britain 1
Herbicides--War use 1
Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) 1
Human Genome Project--Economic aspects--United States. 1
Human Genome Project--Moral and ethical aspects 1
Human Genome--Patents 1
Human genome 1
Human genome--Congresses. 1
Invitations 1
Laos 1
Ledgers (Account Books) 1
Lloyd Harbor (N.Y.) 1
Long Island (N.Y.) 1
Membership 1
Membership lists 1
Microbiology 1
Minutes 1
Mutation Research 1
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) 1
Neurobiology 1
Nobel Prize winners 1
Nobel Prizes 1
Operation Ranch Hand, 1962-1971 1
Plasmids 1
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 1
Proposal writing for grants 1
Proteins 1
Proteins--Synthesis 1
Publications 1
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