Nancy Kleckner

"Nobody pays any attention to it at all and the less attention the better," says Nancy E. Kleckner'68, associate professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, explaining the disadvantages women in her field face.

In fact, says the genetic researcher, "in this day and age, it's an advantage because people like to see women doing things and they give them encouragement."

Kleckner received tenure last November, becoming the first woman to join the Biochemistry Department's 10 senior faculty members--and only the fifth tenured woman in all of Harvard's science departments.

"Her work has been superb, and that's the only reason we gave her tenure," says James C. Wang, chairman of the Biochemistry Department.

Comparing her years as a Radcliffe undergraduate with her current experiences. Kleckner says, "today people are more willing to believe that a woman graduate student is no different than anyone else."

"When I was applying to graduate school, someone asked me if I was going to get married and quit," Kleckner recalls. "Most people in the building thought I was a secretary or technician."

But in her department, she adds, it has proved easier for women to fit in "This is a small field, so it's more accepting of newcomers than some of the older, more established fields."

"Overall, the major change over the past few years in the attitude toward women is that people are not as surprised to see a woman working," she remarks.

Kleckner has worked in genetic research since the early 1970s, and members of the department praise her groundbreaking contributions--especially in the field of bacterial transposons, where she is considered a leading scientist.

Transposons are pieces of DNA that move from one place to another inside a chromosome; they act as mechanisms within living cells for the rearrangement of DNA molecules, Kleckner says, calling them "nature's tool for genetic engineering."

Other scientists believe that transposons have potentially dramatic implications in evolutionary theory and medicine, and last year the Nobel Prize in Medicine was given for work done in this area.

Aside from her research, Kleckner teaches two courses. Biochemistry 110b, "Molecular Genetics, and Biochemists 156, "Gene Regulation," Which covers several topics in molecular genetics. In these courses, she works with both graduate students and undergraduates and she also advises students conducting advanced research.

I've just started working on 110b and amide devoting the bulk of my attention to it. She says adding that she not only plans to continue her work on transposons but may eventually expand into new areas of research.

As an undergraduate, Kleckner concentrated in Biology and after graduating in 1968 she enrolled at MIT for graduate and postdoctoral work. Much of the work she participated in contributed to the upsurge of interest among biochemists in research on transposons.

In 1977, Harvard hired Kleckner, now 36 years old, as an assistant professor and promoted her to associate professor a few years later. She was drawn to Harvard and wants to stay here, she says, because of the quality of students and faculty.

"Some people are very good at what they do, and I like being around them," she says. "The graduate students here are the best in the country."