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Edward B. Lewis

Edward B. Lewis (May 20, 1918July 21, 2004) was an American geneticist, the winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Lewis, who was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, received a B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1938 and a Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1942. After serving as a meteorologist in the U.S. Air Force in World War II, Lewis joined the Caltech faculty as an instructor in 1946. In 1956 he was appointed Professor of Biology, and in 1966 the Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Biology. Among his many awards were the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal (1983), the Gairdner Foundation International award (1987), the Wolf Foundation prize in medicine (1989), the Rosenstiel award (1990), the National Medal of Science (1990), the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1991), and the Louisa Gross Horwitz prize (1992).

His Nobel Prize winning studies with Drosophila founded the field of developmental genetics and laid the groundwork for our current understanding of the universal, evolutionarily conserved strategies controlling animal development. His key publications in the fields of genetics, developmental biology, radiation and cancer are presented in the book Genes, Development and Cancer, released in 2004.

Last updated: 10-29-2005 02:13:46