S. Jonathan Singer: A man who loved ideas and detested walls

Abstract

S. Jonathan Singer, “Jon” to one and all, died February 2, 2017, at the age of 92. Educated as a physical chemist, he transitioned gracefully by way of protein and immunochemistry to become a cell and molecular biologist of huge renown. His initial bout with fame came in 1949 when Jon was a postdoctoral fellow with Linus Pauling at the California Institute of Technology and, together with Harvey Itano, showed that sickle cell hemoglobin differed from normal hemoglobin by Tiselius electrophoresis (1). The years at the California Institute of Technology also led Jon into the antibody field by way of a collaboration with the immunologist Dan Campbell, something that would stand him in good stead later. After his postdoctoral stint, Jon was appointed to the faculty at Yale in the Department of Chemistry, where he remained until 1961. At that point Jon joined the microbiologist David Bonner, who was leaving the Yale School of Medicine, to set up an innovative department of biology at a new branch of the University of California, La Jolla in San Diego (UCSD).