The Speculist

Nobel Prize Winning Geneticist Dr. Ed Lewis Has Died

Dr. Ed Lewis, one of the last of the old geneticists who worked with fruit flies prior to Watson and Crick's description of the DNA molecule, passed away Wednesday.

Author and longtime collaborator Howard Lipshitz, in a book published this year, described Lewis' research as "the bridge linking experimental genetics as conducted in the first half of the 20th century, and the powerful molecular genetic approaches that revolutionized the field in its last quarter."

In awarding Lewis the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine [in 1995], the Nobel committee cited him for identifying and classifying "a small number of genes that are of key importance in determining the body plan and the formation of body segments."

Lewis obviously loved his work. He retired in 1988, but kept an active schedule in his laboratory until recently when his health began to fail from cancer.