Geneticist Alexander Hollaender was born in Samter, Germany on 19 December 1898. He immigrated to the United States in 1921 around the age of 23 and became a naturalized citizen in 1927. He obtained his secondary education at the University of Wisconsin were he received his AB in 1929, his MA in 1930, and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1931. While fulfilling his college requirements, Hollaender served as assistant instructor in physical chemistry. Hollaender continued his stay at the University of Wisconsin from 1931 until 1933 as instructor of Biology.

From early on in his career, Hollaender was interested in the problems of radiation biology and chemical mutagenesis. In 1934 he held the Rockefeller Foundation fellowship for the study of chemical radiation. Following that, he supervised a National Research Council project on radiation at Wisconsin from 1934 until 1937. Upon completion of the project, Hollaender moved to the Washington Biophysics Institute of the National Institute of Health as an associate biologist. After only a year he was promoted to senior biophysicist, a position he held until 1950. Concurrently, he served as director of the division of biology at the Atomic Energy Commission's Oak Ridge National laboratory from 1946 to 1966 where in 1967 he was promoted to senior research advisor, a position he held until 1972.

Hollaender continued to be involved in academics throughout his life. He served on the faculty of the University of Tennessee as a professor of radiation biology from 1957 and 1966. Subsequently he served as a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences from 1967 to 1972. During his lifetime Hollaender was a member and chairman of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council committee on photobiology, a member and chairman of the subcommittee on radiobiology for the National Research Council, and served as a civilian advisor to many governmental agencies. He was president of the Radiation Research Society in 1954-1955, and of the International Association for Radiation Research from 1962 until 1966. He died in Washington, D.C. on 6 December 1986.

The Alexander Hollaender Papers consist of 4 linear feet of correspondence to and from various geneticists as well as reports and correspondence of the assorted committees, conferences, and organizations in which Hollaender was involved. These papers only contain material from 1955 to 1974.

Included in the Hollaender papers are the records of the National Academy of Sciences committee on the Biological Effects of Atomic Energy. One of the goals of the committee was to outline the issues and problems concerning the scientific knowledge of the genetic effects of high-energy radiation and to suggest the path future research on the subject should take. The information contained in the Hollaender papers is primarily concerned with the criticism and revision of the various drafts of the committee reports, one published in 1956 and the other in 1960.

Hollaender was an active participant in the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. The information on this committee relates to a report prepared by the committee in 1958 and more specifically Hollaender's criticism of the report. Also found in the papers are records concerning published reports and publicly delivered papers of the Second International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy.

Largely represented in the papers is Hollaender's activities in the World Health Organization. As a participant in this organization Hollaender was again concerned with the genetics effects of radiation, acting as chairman of a study group focused on the specific effects of radiation on humans. Records of a proposed World Health Research Center are also contained in the papers.

Provenance

Acquired, 1974.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Alexander Hollaender Papers, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Recatalogued by Leigh McCuen, June 2003.

Other finding aids

The Hollaender Papers are also described in Bentley Glass' A Guide to the Genetics Collections of the APS.

Related material

The Archives of Radiation Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville hold many of Hollaender's papers, records, and books on radiation biology. Additional papers of Hollaender can be found at the University of Texas, Galveston.

Additional Hollaender correspondence is located in the Demerec Papers (79 items).

Physiology, Biochemistry, and Biophysics Note

Alexander Hollaender was educated at the University of Wisconsin, receiving his doctorate in physical chemistry in 1931. These were exciting times to be at Wisconsin, surrounded by scientists like Max Mason, Warren Weaver, John Warren Williams, and Theodor Svedberg, men who in the early 1930s would spearhead the merger of physics, chemistry, and biology under the aegis of the Rockefeller Foundation. Hollaender became an active participant in these intellectual and institutional endeavors. He remained associated with Wisconsin until 1937, working on problems of radiation genetics and chemical mutagenesis (he was one of the first researchers to point out the significance of nucleic acids in mutagenesis). He was also an adviser to the Rockefeller Foundation on the development of molecular biology, and was involved in administering Rockefeller Fellowships and projects of the National Research Council.

In 1937 Hollaender moved to the Washington Biophysics Institute of the National Institutes of Health as an associate biologist, and soon after was promoted as senior biophysicist, a position he held until 1950. By that time Hollaender had established himself as a world authority on radiation genetics. He served as director of the division of biology at the Atomic Energy Commission's Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1946 to 1966, and as a senior research adviser from 1967 until his retirement in 1972. His personal papers have been deposited at the University of Tennessee.

The Hollaender Papers at the APS Library document his activities in postwar radiation genetics, a field addressing biological problems in relation to the newly unleashed powers of atomic energy. These communications, together with the files on radiation genetics, form an important source on the history of that field and its relations to social concerns, environmental issues, and cancer research.

Genetics Note

This collection contains materials which relate to the history of genetics.

Corporate Name(s)

• International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy
• National Academy of Sciences. (U.S.)
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
• United Nations. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiatio.
• World Health Organization.

Personal Name(s)

• Beadle, George Wells, 1903-1989
• Bronk, Detlev W., (Detlev Wulf), 1897-1975
• Campbell, Charles I.
• Crow, James Franklin, 1916-
• Demerec, M., (Milislav), 1895-1966
• Dobzhansky, Theodosius Grigorievich, 1900-1975
• Emerson, Sterling
• Glass, Bentley, 1906-2005
• Hollaender, Alexander, 1898-1986
• Kaplan, Martin M.
• Muller, H. J., (Hermann Joseph), 1890-1967
• Neel, James V., (James Van Gundia), 1915-2000
• Perutz, Max F., 1914-2002
• Plough, Harold Henry, 1892-
• Stern, Curt, 1902-1981
• Sturtevant, A. H. (Alfred Henry), 1891-
• Weaver, Warren, 1894-1978

Subject(s)

• Genetics
• Nuclear energy
• Radiation--Physiological effect