Born: 18 December 1922, United States
Died: 11 November 2006
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Esther Miriam Zimmer Lederberg, a Jewish-American microbiologist, made groundbreaking contributions to bacterial genetics, including discovering the λ bacteriophage and the F fertility factor and developing the replica plating technique. Despite her influential work, Lederberg never received a tenured university position and was often overshadowed by her Nobel laureate husband, Joshua Lederberg.
She passed away in 2006.