Watson Retires After Remarks on Race

On the third floor of Harvard’s Biological Laboratories hangs a plaque that reads, “In these rooms from 1955 to 1976 James D. Watson pioneered in the revolution of molecular biology.”

The plaque lists his achievements while at Harvard, where he won the Nobel Prize and “planned the rejuvenation of the Cold Spring Harbor Lab under which he subsequently became director.”

Watson’s tenure as chancellor of that research institution came to an end yesterday when he announced his resignation in the wake of his remarks suggesting a link between race and intelligence.

One of the most famous biologists of the 20th century, Watson shook the scientific community after The Sunday Times Magazine of London quoted him as having said, “All our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really,” the newspaper quoted him as saying in reference to blacks.

Watson, who joined the lab as director in 1968, said that he was stepping down immediately both as chancellor and as a member of the board.

“Closer now to 80 than 79, the passing on of my remaining vestiges of leadership is more than overdue,” Watson said in a written statement. “The circumstances in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired.”

Harvard professors said it is unfortunate that Watson retired amid such controversy.

“It is sad that his retirement has happened under these circumstances,” said Lecturer on Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Andrew Berry, adding that he suspects Watson will remain engrossed in science despite his retirement.

And regardless of whether Watson stays active in the scientific community, his former colleagues said the famed molecular biologist’s positive impact on Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory will endure.

“He turned a sleepy Long Island research institute into, arguably, the greatest biological powerhouse in the world,” Berry said last Friday after the lab suspended Watson from active duty.

“It’s his greatest legacy,” Berry said about the man who co-discovered the structure of DNA. Berry co-wrote “DNA: The Secret Life” with Watson.

As for the lab, several Harvard faculty members said the future is optimistic.

“It’s operated fantastically without him already,” said Mangelsdorf Professor of Natural Sciences J. Woodland Hastings, who added that Watson’s position as chancellor was created to honor his role in making the institution what it is today, but that Watson does not have the day-to-day responsibilities he had when he was director.

However, some Harvard faculty expressed concern that Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory—which operated as a eugenics lab in the early twentieth century—may have more trouble fundraising given Watson’s departure.

“He has been critical in fundraising,” Berry said.

But no matter the future of the lab, Watson’s legacy will resound.

“His imprint is so solidly established there and it will go on for a long time,” Hastings said.

Watson came to the research center while serving as a Harvard professor. He left Harvard in 1976, writing to then-Dean of the College Henry Rosovsky that he was “unable to function simultaneously as a Harvard professor and as the Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.”

—Staff writer Alexander B. Cohn can be reached at abcohn@fas.harvard.edu.