{{Infobox scientist | name = Alexander Hollaender | image = Hollaender_at_CSH.jpg | image_size = 225px | caption = Alexander Hollaender at Cold Spring Harbor Symposium, c. 1950's <br> Photograph by Esther Lederberg | birth_date = {{birth date|1898|12|9}} | birth_place = Samter, Province of Posen, German Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|1986|12|6|1898|12|9}} | death_place = Washington D.C. | work_institution = Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | alma_mater = | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = Radiation-induced mutations | author_abbreviation_bot = | author_abbreviation_zoo = | awards = Enrico Fermi Award (1983)<br>Member, National Academy of Sciences (1957) }}
'''Alexander Hollaender''' (9 December 1898 – 6 December 1986) was a leading researcher in radiation biology and in genetic mutations. In 1983 he was given the Enrico Fermi Award by the United States Department of Energy for his contributions in founding the science of radiation biology, and for his leadership in promoting "scientific exchanges" between American scientists and scientists from developing countries.<ref name=FermiAward>{{cite web |url=http://www.er.doe.gov/fermi/html/Laureates/1980s/alexanderh.htm |title=The Enrico Fermi Award 1983 |access-date=2009-11-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091222135208/http://www.er.doe.gov/fermi/html/Laureates/1980s/alexanderh.htm |archive-date=2009-12-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Hollaender was born in Samter, German Empire (Szamotuły, Poland), he emigrated to the US in 1921.<ref>[https://academic.oup.com/mutage/article-abstract/2/2/149/1112253?redirectedFrom=PDF Alexander Hollaender, in memoriam] R.C. von Borstel</ref> In 1939 Hollaender published research showing that the mutations of spores of the ringworm fungus occurred in the same spectrum as the absorption spectrum of nucleic acids indicating that nucleic acids form the building blocks of genes.<ref name=Genetics>{{cite journal|title=Alexander Hollaender: Myth and Mensch|journal=Genetics |date=July 1996|first=R. C. |last=von Borstel|author2= Charles M. Steinberg|pmid=8807280|volume=143 |issue=3|pmc=1207377|pages=1051–1056 |doi=10.1093/genetics/143.3.1051 |url=http://www.genetics.org/cgi/reprint/143/3/1051|access-date=2009-11-29 }}</ref> A young Esther M. Zimmer, who worked with Dr. Hollaender at the U. S. Public Health Service (Bethesda, MD),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.estherlederberg.com/Records.html#HOLLAENDER|title=Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg: Professional Records}}</ref> published with Dr. Hollaender, Eva Sansome and Milislav Demerec in this very early field of x-ray- and UV-induced mutations.<ref>Hollaender, A. and Zimmer, E. M., January 1945 (September, 1944), "The effect of ultraviolet radiation and X-rays on mutation production in Penicillium notatum",'' Genetics Society of America'' 30(1):8; see http://www.estherlederberg.com/Papers.html</ref><ref>Hollaender, A., Sansome E. R., Zimmer, E., Demerec, M., April 1945, "Quantitative Irradiation Experiments with Neurospora crassa. II. Ultraviolet Irradiation", ''American Journal of Botany'' 32(4):226-235; see http://www.estherlederberg.com/Papers.html</ref> In later years, Esther Zimmer (subsequentlyEsther Lederberg) became one of the most influential founders of bacterial and bacteriophage (Lambda phage) genetics. From 1946 to 1966 Hollaender was the director of the Biology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, where he worked with M. Laurance Morse, who himself was a collaborator with Esther Lederberg.
In 1957, Hollaender was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, in recognition of his work on radiation biology.director of the Biology Division
His research was not appreciated for its discovery at the time, and later scientists reports were necessary before science accepted the role of nucleic acids as the genetic material.<ref name=Genetics /> Historians of science now realize his early discovery, and his Fermi Award recognized this discovery.<ref name=FermiAward /><ref name=Genetics />
In 1981 Hollaender established the Council for Research Planning in Biological Sciences, and was its president at the time of his death from a pulmonary embolism in 1986.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Alexander_Hollaender |title=Alexander Hollaender |work=IEEE Global History Network |publisher=IEEE |access-date=21 July 2011}}</ref> The US National Academy of Sciences gives the Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics every three years in his honor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/alexander-hollaender-award.html|title=Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/hollaender-alexander.pdf National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollaender, Alexander}} Category:1898 births Category:1986 deaths Category:Radiobiologists Category:American biophysicists Category:People from Szamotuły Category:People from the Province of Posen Category:People from Oak Ridge, Tennessee Category:German emigrants to the United States Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Enrico Fermi Award recipients Category:Deaths from pulmonary embolism Category:20th-century American physicists