1925-

American geneticist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1958 with George Beadle and Edward Tatum for his work with bacteria and genetic recombination. He pioneered the use of bacteria in genetics research by discovering the process of transduction, where genetic material could be transferred from one bacterium to another. While his bacterial research set the stage for genetic engineering, he is also remembered for many other contributions to science.