Jack Schultz (1904-1971) was a geneticist and biochemist that centered his career on the study of the nature and function of the gene, chemical genetics of Drosophila, cytochemical and nutritional techniques, cytochemistry of growth, and the pattern of human chromosomes. He had a two-pronged research strategy, he studied genes horizontally, along with the chromosomes, and vertically, with the study of genes' effect on a single development: the formation of eye pigment in Drosophila.

Schultz in his undergraduate years at Columbia University took a position as bottle washer in Thomas H. Morgan's "fly room". His interest was piqued. He changed his major and his studies culminated in graduate work with Morgan and Edmund B. Wilson, resulting in a thesis called "Minute". His close association with biophysicist Selig Hecht further shrpened his skills in applying physiochemical methods to biological research.

Upon receiving his doctorate in 1929, Schultz and his wife, Helen Redfield, also a geneticist, moved to Pasadena to work with Morgan as he set up a new laboratory at California Institute of Technology. Here Jack attacked many problems in Drosophila genetics, collaborating with Alfred H. Sturtevant, Philip Bridges, Theodosius Dobzhansky and others.

But Schultz interest was in the chemical constitution of the genetic material. In 1937, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation, he went to the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Under the guidance of Torbjorn O. Caspersson, he found a laboratory that was more in tune to his research goals.

With the onset of World War II, Schultz returned home to take various laboratory positions, including returning to Cal Tech from 1941-1942. In 1942, he was offered a postion in the Department of Genetics and Cytochemistry at the Institute for Cancer Research in Fox Chase, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From 1943 to 1957, he studied human chromosomes and devised media for growing Drosophila cultures. From 1957-1969, Schultz was the chairman of the Division of Biology at the Institute.

Other contributions to his profession include serving on the editorial boards of the Journal of Heredity, the American Naturalist, and Genetics. His organizational memberships culminated in a vice-presidency (Zoology) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1961), and the presidencies of the Genetics Society of America (1963) and the American Society of Naturalists (1968).

Jack Schultz was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1969. He died of a heart attack on April 29, 1971, survived by his wife, a son and daughter.

Dr. Schultz was known by his colleagues as an excellent source of information--it was said, one gained more knowledge from his personal talk than through his publications.

The Jack Schultz Papers (1924-1971) contain correspondence with colleagues, works by himself and others, plus participation in genetic related organizations and laboratories. Of note, are the very detailed research notes of studies of the Drosophila, particularly related to eye pigment, and all other areas of study conducted throughout his career as a geneticist and biochemist.

The papers (49 boxes; 24.5 linear feet) are divided into seven series:

Physical description

24.5 linear feet.

Provenance

Presented by Helen Redfield Schultz and accessioned, 12/--/1983 (1984 9ms).

Processing information

Processed by Ann Reinhardt with funding provided by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, 2017.

Physiology, Biochemistry, and Biophysics Note

Jack Schultz was the last graduate student to earn his doctorate under Thomas H. Morgan at Columbia (1929), joining his mentor at the new biology division at the California Institute of Technology (1929-1936, 1940-1942). Although trained as a geneticist, Schultz began combining classical Drosophila genetics with gene chemistry as early as 1930, when American genetics and biochemistry had little common ground. He also appreciated the significance of nucleic acids in heredity at a time when the protein view of the gene was dominant. These research interests led Schultz in 1936 to a long-term collaboration with the Swedish biochemist Torbjorn Caspersson on studies of nucleic acids in relation to genetics, and to Schultz's move to the Department of Genetics and Cytochemistry at the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia (1943-1969). His research program was therefore an important link between classical and molecular genetics, and between pure and applied research. Raised in New York's intellectual milieu, Schultz's temperament inclined him toward synthesis of scientific knowledge. His strength lay in organizing research and in identifying original problems and researchers. He did not enjoy writing, and did not publish or correspond prolifically; the Schultz Papers reflects this pattern in his career.

Torbjorn O. Caspersson studied medicine and biophysics at the University of Stockholm in the 1930s, becoming a lecturer in biochemistry at the chemistry division of the Karolinska Institute (1937-1942), and professor of medical cell research and genetics in 1944. That same year a special research institution was created, the Nobel Institute for Medical Cell Research and Genetics, which soon after was supplemented by the Wallenberg Laboratory of Experimental Cell Research; Caspersson was director of both institutions.

Although he worked within a medical institutional context, Caspersson's research program focused on fundamental aspects of cytogenetics, with a special emphasis on precise spectroscopic measurements. In the 1930s and 1940s, long before the race along the path to the double helix had begun, Caspersson promoted the genetic significance of nucleic acids. Combining his knowledge of cell biology and biochemistry with accurate spectroscopic observations of nucleic acids in living cells, Caspersson concluded in the late 1930s that nucleic acids were somehow involved in protein synthesis, an unorthodox view at a time when protein chemistry dominated the chemical approach to heredity.

Some of this important work was done during a two-year collaboration with Jack Schultz in Stockholm. The collaboration with Schultz, which grew into a life-long friendship, continued through correspondence, visits, and exchange of research assistants. After Schultz left abruptly at the outbreak of the war in 1939, Caspersson attempted to join Warren H. Lewis's cytology laboratory at Johns Hopkins as a Rockefeller Fellow.

Genetics Note

This collection contains materials which relate to the history of genetics.

• American Society of Naturalists
• Columbia University.
• Genetics Society of America.
• Institute for Cancer Research (Philadelphia, Pa.)
• National Research Council (U.S.)
• National Science Foundation, U.S.

• Articles.
• Lectures.

• Beadle, George Wells, 1903-1989
• Briggs, R. W. (Robert W.)
• Caspersson, Torbjörn (Torbjörn Oskar), 1910-1997
• Cooper, Kenneth Willard
• Darlington, C. D. (Cyril Dean), 1903-1981
• Demerec, M. (Milislav), 1895-1966
• Dobzhansky, Theodosius Grigorievich, 1900-1975
• Ephrussi, Boris, 1901-1979
• Fabergé, Alexander C.
• Hadorn, Ernst
• Haldane, J. B. S. (John Burdon Sanderson), 1892-1964
• Hecht, Selig, 1892-1947
• Klein, George
• Lewis, Edward B.
• Morgan, Thomas Hunt, 1866-1945
• Muller, H. J. (Hermann Joseph), 1890-1967
• Rudkin, George T.
• Schultz, Jack,1904-1971.
• Stadler, L. J. (Lewis John), 1896-1954
• Ward, George

• Biochemical genetics.
• Biology.
• Cytochemistry.
• Cytogenetics
• Cytology.
• Drosophila.
• Genetics.
• Human chromosomes.