CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON

          1530 P STREET. NORTHWEST

        WASHINGTON. D. C. 20005-1910

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

December 12, 1989

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
President
The Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue
New York, New York 10021

Dear Josh:

I am sorry that I have no specific candidates to suggest'


I admit to being somewhat puzzled about your letter and how

for the several searches underway at the Rockefeller.

to respond. In the middle paragraph on page 7, you describe
current searches for senior faculty. At the start of the next
paragraph, you refer to tenured appointments. I assumed that
the senior faculty appointments were also tenured. But then the
confusion set in. After starting to talk about tenured
appointments in the bottom paragraph, you reverted to the term
senior faculty positions. And the second sentence, ('1 will
mention another current concern" seemed to set these apart. Was
I meant to read that the exceptional women scientists you
describe are not to be tenured? This ambiguity is deepened by
the juxtaposition of the sentence starting "We are eager ...I!
and the one starting !!I am strongly committed". To be quite
straightforward, the juxtaposition of those two sentence9 is
exactly the kind of !tcluefv that suggests to people that you:
1. do not expect to find female candidates who meet your

    standards and
2. may apply criteria other than scientific excellence in such
    choices.
Altogether, I did not find the letter encouraging.

   In my experience, one searches for female candidates the
some way one searches for male candidates. After figuring out
the fields you are interested in, you make every effort to find
out who is doing the most exciting work. At present, such an
effort is very likely to turn up women as well as men,
particularly among younger people. The standard letters asking
for suggestions, usually asking first about good candidates

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
December 12, 1989
Page 2

rather than who is doing the bes, work, are, I be ieve, much
less likely to turn up women because most men simply don't think
about women when asked to propose candidates for senior jobs.

the issues I've raised if you wish.

I hope this is helpful. I'd be glad to talk to you about


With best regards,

Sincerely ,

Maxine F. Singer

MFS/MJ