Ray Wu, pioneer of genetic engineering, 79
La N
Newsday.com
Ray Wu, pioneer of genetic engineering, dies at 79
5:44 PM EST, February 13, 2008
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) _ Ray Wu, a Cornell University professor widely recognized
as one of the fathers of genetic engineering, has died.
Wu died of cardiac arrest in Ithaca on Sunday, university officials said. He
was 79.
Wu, a professor of molecular biology and genetics, developed and sought to
feed the world with a higher-yielding variety of rice that resists insects
and drought. In 1970, he developed the first method for sequencing DNA and
some of the fundamental tools for DNA cloning.
In the mid-1990s, Wu and his group genetically engineered and successfully
field-tested pest-resistant rice plants and in 2002 demonstrated another
strategy to genetically engineer rice and other crops to make them more
tolerant of drought, salt and temperature stresses, while bolstering yields.
Wu and his colleagues said the newer strategy could work for several rice
varieties and other crops, including corn, wheat, millet, soybeans and sugar
cane.
Born in Beijing, Wu came to the United States in 1948 at the urging of his
father. He earned his bachelors degree in chemistry at the University of
Alabama in 1950 and his doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University
of Pennsylvania in 1955.
Wu joined the Cornell faculty in 1966 as an associate professor of
biochemistry and molecular biology, became a professor in 1972, and in 2004
was named a Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor Molecular Biology and Genetics. He
served as department chair from 1976-78 in Cornells Section of Biochemistry,
Molecular and Cell Biology.
Prior to joining the Cornell faculty, Wu was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral
Fellow, working under Efraim Racker at the Public Health Research Institute
of New York City. He also worked at Stanford University and the University
of Pennsylvania, was a National Science Foundation senior fellow at the
Medical Research Council Laboratory in Cambridge, England, and a visiting
associate professor in the Department of Biology and Chemistry at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Wu also served as a scientific adviser to the governments of both China and
Taiwan and exerted great influence on U.S.-Chinese cooperation in biological
science and education.
In 1999, Wu made a gift of $500,000 to Cornell to establish the Ray Wu
Graduate Fellowship in Molecular Biology and Genetics to support a
first-year graduate student. He funded the gift over the next five years to
create a permanent endowment to support one graduate student each year in
the field.
Wu, who became a naturalized US citizen in 1961, is survived by his wife,
Christina, two children, Albert and Alice, and three grandchildren.