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Mary-Claire King
In 1966, When Mary-Claire King arrived at the University of California, Berkeley, she was all set to study mathematics. But anthropological geneticist Allan C. Wilson persuaded her to switch to genetics. Her 1973 dissertation (and later a 1975 Science paper1) showed that chimps and humans shared 99% of their genomes. In 1990, she found evidence of the first breast cancer gene.2
The Scientist 2004, 18(5):16
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Mainly pride. I don't indulge in nostalgia about that period because it was a terrible time for our country. It's very American: When you see something wrong, you try to fix it. The single most effective thing we did was on the day after the US invaded Cambodia, we got out our suit jackets and shirtwaist dresses – not clothes that any of us had worn since coming to Berkeley – and went to the synagogues and churches and by the end of Sunday we had 30,000 letters opposing the action. It made it longer to get a dissertation done, but it was an interesting, intense time.
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