In Memoriam: Nobel Laureate Paul Berg, Ph.D., Founder of the Beckman Center

Paul Berg, Ph.D., the founding director of the Beckman Center, and the Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor of Cancer Research Emeritus at the Stanford University School of Medicine, passed away on February 15, 2023, at the age of 96.

Dr. Berg’s work with recombinant DNA earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980, ushering in the field of genetic engineering. Dr. Berg recognized that genetic engineering and other recent scientific advances could have a profound impact on the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of disease, and he worked to establish a center at Stanford that would integrate the basic, clinical, and applied sciences, to ensure that these advancements would be more readily available to clinical scientists.

Dr. Berg’s vision became reality in 1989, with the opening of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine. Dr. Berg was also instrumental in establishing the center’s partnership with the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, which provided the initial major funding for the Beckman Center and continues to support the center.

“I cannot overstate Paul’s brilliance, compassion, and enthusiasm for discovery,” Lloyd Minor, M.D., dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, told Stanford Medicine News. “The joy of discovery motivated Paul throughout his career, and he generously gave his time to instill that joy in countless many. His death is a huge loss for the scientific community, Stanford Medicine, and the fortunate among us who called him a colleague and friend.”

"As founding chair of the Department of Developmental Biology at the Beckman Center, and director of the Beckman Center since 2004, I worked closely with Paul," says Lucy Shapiro, Ph.D.  "Like so many others at Stanford, I will miss him."

Read more about Dr. Berg’s remarkable life and career in Stanford Medicine News.

Read Dr. Berg’s obituary in the New York Times (subscription req.).