Maxine Singer

Maxine Frank Singer (15 February 1931 to 9 July 2024) was an American molecular biologist and science administrator, known for her contributions to solving the genetic code, her role in the ethical and regulatory debates on recombinant DNA techniques, including the organization of the 1975 Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA, and her leadership of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. She was born in New York City, majored in chemistry and minored in biology at Swarthmore College, and earned a PhD at Yale University in 1957, researching protein chemistry under Joseph Fruton. She joined Leon Heppel's Laboratory of Biochemistry at the National Institutes of Health in 1956 and was Chief of the Laboratory of Biochemistry at the National Cancer Institute from 1980 to 1987. In 1988 she became president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, a post she held until 2002, and she received the National Medal of Science in 1992.