Editing Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (section)

==Leadership==
In 1962, the Department of Genetics, no longer supported by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, formally merged with the Biological Laboratory to form the '''Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory of Quantitative Biology'''. In 1970, the name was simplified to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

[[John Cairns (biochemist)|John F. Cairns]] was appointed as the Director of the merged Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1963 and found that in the absence of continued financial support from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the newly created institution was in desperate need of funds to support its programs and update facilities. Cairns stabilized the Laboratory and made essential improvements to the facilities.<ref name="roadtodisc">{{cite book |last1=Witkowski |first1=Jan A. |title=The Road to Discovery |date=2016 |publisher=Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press |location=Cols Spring Harbor, NY |isbn=978-1-621821-08-3}}</ref>{{rp|215}} He decided in 1968 that he would step down as Director and he remained at CSHL until 1973, moving then to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now [[Cancer Research UK]]) in Mill Hill near London, UK.<ref name="roadtodisc" />{{rp|227}} While at CSHL, Cairns performed important experiments on DNA replication in the bacteria ''E. coli''.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

[[James D. Watson]] served as the Laboratory's director and president for 35 years. Upon taking charge in 1968, he focused the Laboratory on cancer research, creating a tumor virus group and successfully obtaining federal funds for an expansion of cancer research capabilities. Watson placed CSHL on a firm financial footing. Inspired by his Nobel collaborator, Francis Crick, Watson initiated a major push to scale-up CSHL research on the brain and psychiatric disorders, beginning in the late 1980s.  In 1990, work was completed on the [[Arnold and Mabel Beckman]] Laboratory, and the Marks Neuroscience Building was opened in 1999.  In 1994, Watson ceased being director of the Laboratory and assumed the title of president. In 2004 he was named chancellor, a position he held until October 2007,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cshl.edu/Non-Research-Faculty/james-d-watson.html |title=Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory &#124; James D. Watson |access-date=2014-04-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407071213/http://www.cshl.edu/Non-Research-Faculty/james-d-watson.html |archive-date=2014-04-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  when he  retired at the age of 79 after views attributed to him on [[race and intelligence]] appeared in the British press.<ref>[[James watson#cite note-Africans-45]]</ref><ref>[[James watson#cite note-Suspension-46]]</ref> In January 2019, CSHL severed all ties with Watson—and revoked his honorary titles—after he unequivocally restated these views in an [[American Masters]] television profile.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cshl.edu/statement-by-cold-spring-harbor-laboratory-addressing-remarks-by-dr-james-d-watson-in-american-masters-decoding-watson/|title=Statement by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory addressing remarks by Dr. James D. Watson in "American Masters: Decoding Watson"|date=2019-01-11|website=Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-26}}</ref>

Since 1994 biochemist and cancer biologist [[Bruce Stillman]] has led the Laboratory as director, and since 2003 as president. Stillman, a member of the [[National Academy of Sciences]] and a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]], also continues to run a basic research lab, devoted to the study of DNA replication and chromosome maintenance. Stillman is credited with the 1991 discovery and elucidation of the mechanism of the [[Origin Recognition Complex]] (ORC), a highly conserved protein complex that recognizes and binds to specific DNA sequences, marking starting points for replication of the entire genome.<ref>{{cite journal | pmid = 8939847 | volume=274 | issue=5293 | title=Cell cycle control of DNA replication | date=December 1996 | journal=Science | pages=1659–64 | last1 = Stillman | first1 = B | doi=10.1126/science.274.5293.1659| bibcode=1996Sci...274.1659S | s2cid=23519414 }}</ref>

Stillman has presided over a major expansion of the Laboratory, its size growing threefold since he became director. With construction completed on six linked laboratory buildings on the Hillside Campus in 2009, CSHL added much-needed new laboratory space for cancer and neuroscience research, as well as space for a new program on quantitative biology to bring experts in mathematics, computer science, statistics, and physics to problems in biology.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}