Ira Herskowitz, an Editor of Genes to Cells dies at 56

Ira Herscowitz died on 28 April 2003 of pancreatic cancer. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his doctorate, studying the control of gene expression in phage lambda. As a young professor at the University of Oregon he started his seminal work on yeast molecular biology. Extending the pioneering work by Yasuji Oshima, he provided molecular interpretation of the cassette theory of yeast mating type interconversion. Later at the University of California, San Francisco, he continued to make key contributions on gene regulation and control of cell cycle with the yeast system. I think it a natural development that, in later years, he was concerned with the mammalian biology of pharmacogenetics of membrane transporters. Ira had a remarkable ability to untangle complex phenomena by clear reasoning and impressed us with his persuasive presentation. He was also an enthusiastic folk and blues singer. When I organized a biology meeting, I asked him to bring his guitar. He said that ‘I will bring my instrument made in Japan’, real or joke? I present below some of the witty lines he sang. I feel very sad that I cannot reproduce his attractively deep voice. (Jun‐ichi Tomizawa, ‘Tomi’).