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Waclaw Szybalski Lecture Series honors the over 60 years of close ties between Laboratoryand Dr. Waclaw Szybalski, a pioneering geneticist, microbiologist, cancer biologist, and genome scientist.

Szybalski鈥檚 research career began at Cold Spring Harbor in 1951 after his emigration from Poland. Here he invented the gradient plate technique—a method for isolating drug-resistant mutants and determining the minimal inhibitory concentration of antimicrobial compounds. He also performed genetic studies of cross-resistance to antibiotics and mutation rates that led to the idea of 鈥渕ultiple antibiotic therapy.鈥� In 1954, Szybalski moved to the new Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University and then in 1960 to the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison, Wisconsin, where he remained for the rest of his research career. There he discovered the radiosensitization of human and bacterial cells by incorporation of 5-bromo- and 5-iododeoxyuridine into their DNA, a discovery that had a very practical application in enhancing radiotherapy of cancers. Also among his many research achievements was the first enzymatic synthesis of biologically active DNA in 1963 with Rose Litman. His later work focused on the function of regulatory elements, sequencing methods, and genome science.

Szybalski met the physicist and phage biologist Max Delbr眉ck during his early days at Cold Spring Harbor and has the rare distinction of attending every LaboratoryPhage meeting from its inception in 1950 through the last meeting 2010. Szybalski was also a regular participant in the LaboratorySymposium on Quantitative Biology.

Because his first lab desk at Laboratorywas in the Carnegie Building, Szybalski had a special affection for this building. At the 2001 and 2002 Phage meetings, Szybalski urged the Lab to add an annex to the Carnegie Library that would include meeting space and space for visiting researchers, and he provided a generous philanthropic donation to make this possible. The result was the Szybalski Annex, which opened in 2010, and houses the Szybalski Reading Room. Dr. Szybalski鈥檚 portrait hangs in the Reading Room, which also contains a large-format illustrated volume detailing his life, his scientific achievements, and his many honors.

Lectures